Jackie Joyner-Kersee wins her second gold medal in the heptathlon - August 2nd, 1992

On this day in 1992, American athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee became the first woman to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that takes a flying leap through history every day
of the week. I'm Gabe Lucier, and today we're celebrating
the record setting win of four time Olympian athlete Jackie

(00:22):
Joyner Cursey, one of the greatest track and field stars
of all time. The day was August second, nineteen ninety two,
American athlete Jackie Joyner Cursey became the first woman to
win two consecutive Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon. As

(00:47):
the name suggests, the heptathlon is a seven sport competition.
The women's version consists of the one hundred meter hurdles,
the high jump, the shot put, the two hundred meters,
the running long jump, and the javelin throw. The seven
events are split across two days, and competitors are scored

(01:08):
on their performance in each event. A high level performance
typically earns a score of about one thousand points for
a single event, so if an athlete's combined score is
seven thousand points or higher, they've essentially run a perfect heptathlon.
Jackie Joyner Kersey was the first woman to breach that
seven thousand point barrier, and she repeated the feat multiple

(01:32):
times over the course of her career. In fact, her
best score seven two hundred ninety one is still the
world record for the heptathlon as of twenty twenty four,
now considered one of the greatest heptathletes in history. Jackie
Joyner was born on March third, nineteen sixty two, in

(01:54):
East Saint Louis, Illinois. She was named Jacqueline, after President
John F. Kennedy's wife, because, as her grandmother put it, quote,
someday this girl will be the first lady of something.
That something turned out to be track and field, which
Jackie first took an interest in at age nine. Growing

(02:14):
up poor, she didn't always have access to the best
facilities or equipment, so instead she fashioned a jumping pit
in her own backyard. It was made from sand that
her sister smuggled home from a nearby park, one potato
chip bag at a time. All her backyard training paid off,
and by the time Jackie was in high school, she

(02:35):
was a dominating athlete, both on the track and on
the basketball court. Her skills earned her a scholarship to UCLA,
where she met track coach Bob Cursey, whom she would
later marry. At age twenty two, Jackie Joyner made her
first of four Olympic appearances at the nineteen eighty four
Games in Los Angeles. She placed fifth in the long

(02:57):
jump competition and took home a silly medal for the heptathlon,
falling short of first place by just five points. Joyner
rallied after her defeat and spent the next four years
winning international competitions and setting world records. She also married
her longtime trainer and changed her name to Joiner Cursey.

(03:19):
Among her many victories during this period was the nineteen
eighty six Goodwill Games, where she first broke the seven
thousand point barrier for the heptathlon. One month later, she
beat her own record at the Olympic Festival, and then
at the Olympic Trials in nineteen eighty eight, she beat
it again. The five foot ten, one hundred fifty pound

(03:41):
athlete kept the momentum going at that year's Olympics in Seoul. First,
she set her still standing heptathlon world record of seven
thou two hundred ninety one points. Then five days later
she won her second gold medal by setting a new
Olympic best in the long jump, with her leap of
twenty four feet three and a quarter inches. That made

(04:04):
Joiner Cursey the first American woman to earn a gold
medal in each of those events. Her wins hadn't come easy, though,
some accused her of using performance enhancing drugs, though she
had never failed a drug test. Joiner Cursey also grappled
with chronic asthma, which she had been diagnosed with in

(04:24):
nineteen eighty three. She went on to have several full
blown attacks during training and sometimes had to wear a
mask while competing. Despite those setbacks, Joiner Cursey returned for
her third Summer Games at the nineteen ninety two Olympics
in Barcelona. Now a seasoned pro, she was a heavy
favorite to win the heptathlon gold, and true to the hype,

(04:47):
she led the field through the whole event. On August second,
she entered the second day of competition with a lead
of one hundred and twenty nine points with three events remaining.
First up was the long jump, one of her specialty.
She expanded her lead with a leap of twenty three
feet three inches and then followed it up by throwing

(05:08):
the javelin one hundred and forty seven feet and seven inches. Lastly,
she ran her way into the winners circle by completing
the eight hundred meters sprint in the respectable time of
two minutes eleven seconds. That strong finish gave her a
score of seven thousand, forty four points, earning her her
second back to back gold medal for the heptathlon. That

(05:33):
win also marked the sixth time in her career that
she'd broken the seven thousand point barrier, though her score
in Barcelona wasn't enough to top the world record she
had set herself four years earlier. Although not as widely celebrated,
Joyner Kersey also won consecutive bronze medals in the long jump,

(05:53):
the first in Barcelona and the second at the nineteen
ninety six Olympics in Atlanta that proved to be the
final Olympics showing of Joyner Cursey's long and storied career.
A lingering hamstring injury forced her to withdraw from that
year's heptathlon, and in two thousand and one she formally
retired from the sport at age thirty eight at the

(06:16):
time of recording, It remains to be seen whether Joyner
Cursey's long running record will still stand after the twenty
twenty four Olympics in Paris. But if someone does manage
to best her score, I bet she'll be among those
cheering the loudest, because, as the retired athlete and Hall
of Famer once said, quote, the glory of sports comes

(06:38):
from dedication, determination, and desire. Achieving success has less to
do with wins and losses than it does with learning
how to prepare yourself so that at the end of
the day there was nothing more you could have done
to reach your ultimate goal. I'm Gay Blues Gay, and

(06:59):
hopefully you now know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up
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way by writing to this Day at iHeartMedia dot com.

(07:21):
Thanks to kazb Bias for producing the show, and thanks
to you for listening. I'll see you back here again
tomorrow for another day in History class.