Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in both the heptathlon and long jump.

[4] Didrikson, the track star, basketball player, and pro golfer, was chosen the "Greatest Female Athlete of the First Half of the 20th Century.

Fifteen years later, Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the greatest female athlete of all time, just ahead of Zaharias.

Joyner attended college at the University of USA Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1980 to 1985 where she starred in both track & field and basketball.

[5] The Bruins advanced to the West Regional semi-finals of the 1985 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament before losing to eventual runner-up Georgia.

[11] Source[12] Joyner competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and won the silver medal in the heptathlon.

Now known as Jackie Joyner-Kersee after marrying her coach Bob Kersee,[16] she entered the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea and earned gold medals in both the heptathlon and the long jump.

Five days later, Joyner-Kersee won her second gold medal, leaping to an Olympic record of 7.40 m (24 ft 3+1⁄4 in) in the long jump.

[17] This continued the following season in 1989 when Darrell Robinson accused Joyner-Kersee's husband and coach, Bobby Kersee, of distributing performance-enhancing drugs.

[18] Years later, doping insider Victor Conte asserted that in 1988 he personally witnessed an Olympic official at the Seoul games notifying Bobby Kersee that Joyner-Kersee had tested positive for PED use.

The TV never showed a replay of Joyner-Kersee's final long jump attempt neither of the last step, raising serious doubts about its validity, particularly by runner-up Niki Xanthou.

[25] She is a founder of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which encourages young people in East St. Louis to pursue athletics and academics.

[29] Since 1981, the Jesse Owens Award has been given by USATF (and before its renaming, TAC) to the United States' track and field athlete of the year.