Florence Griffith-Joyner

Florence Griffith Joyner

Florence Griffith with President Ronald Reagan in 1988
Personal information
Full name	Florence Griffith Joyner
Nationality	United States
Born	December 21, 1959(1959-12-21) Los Angeles, California
Died	September 21, 1998(1998-09-21) (aged 38) Mission Viejo, California
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	59 kg (130 lb)
Sport
Country	United States United States
Sport	Running
Event(s)	100 meters, 200 meters
Retired	1988
Medal record Women's athletics Competitor for the United States Olympic Games Gold 1988 Seoul 100 metres Gold 1988 Seoul 200 metres Gold 1988 Seoul 4x100 metres relay Silver 1984 Los Angeles 200 metres Silver 1988 Seoul 4x400 metres relay World Championships Gold 1987 Rome 4x100 metres relay Silver 1987 Rome 200 metres

Florence Griffith-Joyner (born Florence Delorez Griffith), also known as Flo-Jo (December 21, 1959 – September 21, 1998) was an American track and field athlete. She is considered the "fastest woman of all time" based on the fact that she still holds the world record for both the 100 metres and 200 metres, both set in 1988 and never seriously challenged. She died of epilepsy in 1998 at the age of 38.

Life

Griffith was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in the Jordan Downs public housing complex. During the late 1980s she became a popular figure in international track and field because of her record-setting performances and flashy personal style. She was the wife of triple jumper Al Joyner and the sister-in-law of heptathlete and long jumper Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Griffith finished fourth in the 200 m at the inaugural World Championship in 1983. The following year she gained much more attention, though mostly because of her extremely long and colorful fingernails rather than her silver medal in the Los Angeles Olympics 200 m. In 1985, she won the final of the Grand Prix with 11.00 seconds. After these Olympics she spent less time running, and married the 1984 Olympic triple jump champion Al Joyner in 1987.

Returning at the 1987 World Championships, she finished again second in the 200 m. She stunned the world when — known as a 200m runner — she ran a 100m World Record of 10.49 in the quarter-finals of the US Olympic Trials. Several sources indicate that this time was very likely wind-assisted. Although at the time of the race the wind meter at the event measured 0.0, indicating no wind, observers noted evidence of significant wind, and wind speeds up to 7 meters/second were noted at other times during the event. Since 1997 the International Athletics Annual of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians has listed this performance as "probably strongly wind assisted, but recognised as a world record". Griffith-Joyner's coach later stated that he believed the 10.49 run had been aided by wind^{[citation needed]}. Outside this race, Griffith-Joyner's fastest time without wind assistance was 10.61 seconds, which would give her the world record anyway.

By now known to the world as "Flo-Jo", Griffith-Joyner was the big favorite for the titles in the sprint events at the 1988 Summer Olympics. In the 100 m final, she ran a wind-assisted 10.54, beating her nearest rival Evelyn Ashford by 0.3 seconds. In the 200 m quarter-final, she set a world record and then broke that record again winning the final by 0.4 seconds with a time of 21.34. She also ran in the 4 x 100 m and 4 x 400 m relay teams. She won a gold medal in the former event, and a silver in the latter (which is still the second fastest time in history behind the winner of that race), her first international 4 x 400 m relay. Her effort in the 100 m was ranked 98th in British TV Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002. She was the 1988 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Griffith-Joyner retired from competitive sports shortly afterwards.

In 1996, Griffith-Joyner appeared on the Charlie Rose show and announced her comeback to competitive athletics, only this time in the 400m. Her rationale was she had already set world marks in both the 100 and 200 meter events, with the 400 world record being her goal. Griffith-Joyner trained steadily leading up to the June US Olympic trials, however tendinitis in her right leg ended her hopes of becoming a triple world record holder. Al Joyner was to also attempt a comeback, but he too was unable to compete due to an injured quadriceps muscle.

Among the things she did away from the track was design the basketball uniforms for the Indiana Pacers in 1989.

Flo Jo at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Death

On September 21, 1998, Griffith-Joyner died in her sleep at the age of 38. The unexpected death was investigated by the sheriff-coroner's office, which announced on October 22 that the cause of death was suffocation during a severe epileptic seizure. She was also found to have had a cavernous angioma, a congenital brain abnormality that made Joyner subject to seizures. According to a family attorney, she had suffered a grand mal seizure in 1990, and had also been treated for seizures in 1993 and 1994.

Controversy

Aside from whether her 1988 Olympic trial world record was wind-aided, Griffith-Joyner was dogged by rumors of drug use.

In 1988, Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian gold medalist in the 800 meters at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics claimed that Griffith-Joyner's times could only have been the result of using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, that her physique had changed dramatically in 1988 (showing marked gains in muscle mass and definition), and that her performance had improved dramatically over a short period of time. Before the 1988 season, Griffith Joyner's best 100 meter time was 10.96 seconds. In 1988 she improved that by 0.47 seconds (or 0.35 sec for the non-wind aided time). Similarly, her pre-1988 best at 200 meters was 21.96. In 1988 she improved that by 0.62 seconds to 21.34, another time which has not been approached. Griffith-Joyner attributed the change in her physique to new health programs. Al Joyner replaced Bob Kersee as her coach, and changed her training program to include more lower body strength training exercises like squats and lunges.

She retired from competitive track and field after her 1988 Olympic triumph. Griffith-Joyner was tested during competition and did not fail any drug tests. After her death in 1998, Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission claimed that Joyner was singled out for rigorous drug testing during the 1988 Seoul Olympics because of steroid rumors. He told the New York Times that Manfred Donike at the time considered the foremost expert on drugs and sports, failed to discover even minute traces of banned substances during the testing.

Track athletes commonly retired in their late 20s, and her husband stated that Griffith-Joyner was never interested in being a career sprinter, found the early nights and no-junk-food diet restrictive, and wanted to start a family as well as pursue interests in fashion design and crafts.

Griffith-Joyner's supporters claimed that the autopsy cleared her of allegations that she used performance-enhancing drugs. The Orange County coroner's office noted that the autopsy records showed that she did not die from drugs or banned substances and that tissue and organ tests revealed none of the changes associated with recent steroid use. Her husband had requested that Griffith-Joyner's body specifically be tested for steroids, but was informed that there was not enough urine in her bladder and that the test could not accurately be performed on other biological samples.

External links

• Official website
• IAAF profile for Florence Griffith-Joyner
• USATF profile
• Florence Griffith Joyner at Find-A-Grave
• Florence Griffith Joyner is breaking 100m World Record. Video
• Florence Griffith Joyner is breaking 200m World Record. Video
• Florence Griffith-Joyner at the Internet Movie Database
• EPSN OTL: Dream Chaser - E-Ticket

Records
Preceded by Evelyn Ashford	Women's 100 m world record holder July 16, 1988 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Marita Koch	Women's 200 m world record holder September 29, 1988 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Steffi Graf	United Press International Athlete of the Year 1988	Succeeded by Steffi Graf
Preceded by Jackie Joyner-Kersee	Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 1988	Succeeded by Ana Fidelia Quirot
Sporting positions
Preceded by Silke Möller	Women's 200 m best year performance 1988	Succeeded by Dawn Sowell