8802120522
DETROIT FREE PRESS
880929
Thursday, September 29, 1988
METRO FINAL CHASER
1D
MITCH ALBOM Free Press Sports Writer
SEOUL '88
Copyright (c) 1988, Detroit Free Press
JOYNER WOMEN DO IT AGAIN
JACKIE LEAPS TO GOLD; FLO SETS WORLD RECORD
SEOUL, South Korea -- She bounced along the track, arm in arm with her
husband, holding an American flag. They bowed to the crowd, their smiles as
big as the Olympics themselves, and then Bobby Kersee pushed his wife out on
her own -- "Go on! Go! Take the lap!" -- because, after all, she had done it
herself.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, whose name is becoming household -- synonymous with
achievement, dedication, gold -- defined herself all over again Wednesday
night, becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the
long jump.
And about an hour later, Joyner-Kersee's sister-in-law, Florence Griffith
Joyner, set a world record of 21.56 in the first heat of the semifinals of the
200 meters. The finals were to be run early this morning. The previous mark of
21.71 was held by Marita Koch and Heike Drechsler, both of East Germany.
Joyner-Kersee's winning leap was 24 feet, 3 1/2 inches, an Olympic record
-- which came on her fifth jump out of six, breaking her mark set last week
in the heptathlon -- in a battle that patriots might have nicknamed "Jackie
vs. The Eastern Bloc." Joyner surpassed East Germany's Drechsler (23-8, good
for the silver medal) and the Soviet Union's Galina Chistyakova (23-3 1/4 for
the bronze). It was the culmination of Joyner-Kersee's 1988 Olympics, in which
she had been a heavy favorite.
"I feel really good," she said afterward. "Now I can relax. That's all I'm
going to do. Relax."
Understandable, for this was a difficult competition. Three women had
traded the world record in this event over the last few years, and their
showdown was billed as one of the premiere field events in these Olympic
Games. Joyner-Kersee had already won a gold in the heptathlon, setting a world
record in the process. But for a while Wednesday, it seemed she would have to
settle for silver in the jump.
Chistyakova's leap stood for two rounds as the best, until Drechsler outdid
it with a 23-6 3/4 effort on her third try. Joyner uncorked a similarly good
jump that round, but was three-quarters of an inch shy of Drechsler, and she
stayed in second place until the fifth attempt.
Then, with the skies clear-blue and her husband/coach cheering her on,
Joyner-Kersee came down the runway with excellent speed, got good lift, and
soared over the pit. She landed in the sand to a roar from the Olympic Stadium
crowd. When her numbers flashed -- "A NEW OLYMPIC RECORD . . ." the announcer
bellowed -- she lept in the air, knowing the others would have to beat her
now.
Drechsler would come up short on her last attempt. So would Chistyakova.
"You did it!" screamed Bobby Kersee, as Joyner-Kersee readied for her sixth
and final attempt. "Now go for the world record (24-8 1/4, held by
Chistyakova) on the next one! Let them chase you. You've got that world
record within you, so let it out!"
She tried, got a good jump, but it was called foul and never measured.
Joyner-Kersee got up, wiped the sand from her suit, and waved to the crowd.
"When I was behind, I couldn't think about the world record," she said. "I
just wanted consistency. Actually, this was only my third long jump competiton
of the season."
No record. No big deal. She didn't need to own the world on this day. It
was enough to have beaten it.
OLYMPICS