Florence Griffith-Joyner

Florence Griffith Joyner
Florence Griffith Joyner.jpg
Florence Griffith with President Ronald Reagan in 1988.
Personal information
Full name Florence Griffith Joyner
Nationality  United States
Date of birth December 21, 1959(1959-12-21)
Place of birth
Date of death September 21, 1998(1998-09-21) (aged 38)
Place of death
Height 1.69 m (5 ft 6 1⁄2 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
Olympic Games
Gold 1988 Seoul 100 m
Gold 1988 Seoul 200 m
Gold 1988 Seoul 4x100 m relay
Silver 1984 Los Angeles 200 m
Silver 1988 Seoul 4x400 m relay
World Championships
Gold 1987 Rome 4x100 m relay
Silver 1987 Rome 200 m

Florence Griffith-Joyner (born Florence Delorez Griffith[1]), also known as Flo-Jo (December 21, 1959 – September 21, 1998) was an American track and field athlete. She is considered the "fastest woman in the world" 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 due to epilepsy in 1998 at the age of 38.

Contents

Life

Griffith was born in Los Angeles and raised in the Jordan Downs public housing complex. During the late 1980s she became a popular figure in international track and field due to her record-setting performances and flashy personal style. However, her career was also dogged by allegations of drug use, which was speculated to have caused her premature death until the autopsy determined that it was due to a congenital defect. She holds the world records in the 100 meters and 200 meters races. 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 200 m runner — she ran a 100 m 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".[2] Griffith-Joyner's coach later stated that he believed the 10.49 run had been aided by wind. 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.

Among the things she did away from the track was design the basketball uniforms for the Indiana Pacers in 1989.[3]

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[4]. She was also found to have had a cavernous angioma - a congenital brain abnormality that made Joyner subject to seizures.[5] 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 the controversy of whether her world record should have been held legal (in view of the anemometer issues, during her 1988 breakthrough year, Griffith-Joyner was dogged by rumors of drug use. These rumours have only been reinforced in recent years by allegations that the United States Olympic Committee permitted 19 Olympic medallists to compete at various Olympic Games between 1988-2000 despite the fact these athletes previously tested positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs[6].

In 1988, Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian gold medalist in the 800 meters at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics suggested that her 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[7]. Before the 1988 season, Griffith Joyner's best 100 meter time was 10.96 seconds. In 1988 she improved that by 0.47 seconds, a time that no one has approached since. 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.[8]

Her retirement from competitive track and field after her 1988 Olympic triumph further fueled the controversy, with some suggesting that her retirement was linked to the start of mandatory random drug testing in 1989.[8][9] Her husband has 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.[10]

Joyner's supporters claimed that the autopsy cleared her of allegations that she used performance-enhancing drugs. However, the coroner noted that the autopsy records showed only that she did not die from drugs or banned substances, the autopsy did not prove that Joyner had never used such drugs. Her husband had requested that 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.[11]

Cultural references

References

  1. ↑ "Florence Griffith-Joyner NNDB Profile". NNDB. http://www.nndb.com/people/285/000111949/. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
  2. ↑ Linthorne, Nick (March 2003). "Wind Assistance". Brunel University. http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~spstnpl/BiomechanicsAthletics/WindAssistance.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
  3. ↑ Kris Schwartz. "FloJo Made Speed Fashionable". http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Griffith_Joyner_Florence.html. 
  4. ↑ Kristina Rebelo Anderson. "The Uneasy Death Of Florence Griffith Joyner". salon.com. http://www.salon.com/news/1998/12/cov_04newsa2.html. 
  5. ↑ "Seizure was brought on by a congenital defect in Griffith-Joyner's brain". BBC. October 23, 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/199306.stm. Retrieved January 4, 2010. 
  6. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/drugs/stories/top10.html
  7. ↑ "O doping está no auge" (in Portuguese). Veja Online. 2000-08-16. http://veja.abril.com.br/160800/p_076.html. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Speed, glamour, doubt will be Flo-Jo's legacy, Reuters, September 23, 1998
  9. ↑ "Flo-Jo: tarnished star of the track". The Guardian (London). http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1140773,00.html. Retrieved May 2, 2010. 
  10. ↑ Dream Chaser, Tom Friend, ESPN.com
  11. ↑ The Uneasy Death of Florence Griffith Joyner, Kristina Rebelo-Anderson, Salon.com, December 1998
  12. ↑ http://eu-es.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2204910087&topic=2100&post=9929

External links

Records
Preceded by
United States Evelyn Ashford		 Women's 100 m World Record Holder
July 16, 1988 – present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
West Germany Steffi Graf		 United Press International
Athlete of the Year
1988		 Succeeded by
West Germany Steffi Graf
Preceded by
United States Jackie Joyner-Kersee		 Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year
1988		 Succeeded by
Cuba Ana Fidelia Quirot
Sporting positions
Preceded by
East Germany Silke Möller		 Women's 200 m Best Year Performance
1988		 Succeeded by
United States Dawn Sowell


Olympic Champions in Women's 100 m

1928: Betty Robinson (USA)  • 1932: Stanisława Walasiewicz (POL)  • 1936: Helen Stephens (USA)  • 1948: Fanny Blankers-Koen (NED)  • 1952: Marjorie Jackson (AUS)  • 1956: Betty Cuthbert (AUS)  • 1960: Wilma Rudolph (USA)  • 1964: Wyomia Tyus (USA)  • 1968: Wyomia Tyus (USA)  • 1972: Renate Stecher (GDR)  • 1976: Annegret Richter (FRG)  • 1980: Lyudmila Kondratyeva (URS)  • 1984: Evelyn Ashford (USA)  • 1988: Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA)  • 1992: Gail Devers (USA)  • 1996: Gail Devers (USA)  • 2000: Vacant  • 2004: Yulia Nestsiarenka (BLR)  • 2008: Shelly-Ann Fraser (JAM)
Olympic Champions in Women's 200 m

1948: Fanny Blankers-Koen (NED)  · 1952: Marjorie Jackson (AUS)  · 1956: Betty Cuthbert (AUS)  · 1960: Wilma Rudolph (USA)  · 1964: Edith McGuire (USA)  · 1968: Irena Szewińska (POL)  · 1972: Renate Stecher (GDR)  · 1976: Bärbel Eckert (GDR)  · 1980: Bärbel Eckert (GDR)  · 1984: Valerie Brisco-Hooks (USA)  · 1988: Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA)  · 1992 Gwen Torrence (USA)  · 1996: Marie-José Pérec (FRA)  · 2000: Pauline Davis-Thompson (BAH)  · 2004: Veronica Campbell (JAM)  · 2008: Veronica Campbell-Brown (JAM)