Florence Joyner

1959-1998

Florence Joyner, also known as “Flo Jo,” was an American sprinter and Olympic athlete. At the 1984 Summer Olympics, she won a silver medal in the 200-meter run. She later married fellow Olympian Al Joyner, the brother of famed athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee. In 1988, she set world records in the 100- and 200-meter events that still stand today. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Joyner took home three gold medals and a silver. She and her coach, Bob Kersee, came under media speculation when rumors spread that she might have used performance-enhancing drugs to improve her times. Joyner vigorously denied these accusations, and they were never proven. Joyner died unexpectedly in September 1998, at age 38, after suffering an epileptic seizure.

FULL NAME: Florence Delorez Griffith-Joyner
BORN: December 21, 1959
DIED: September 21, 1998
BIRTHPLACE: Los Angeles, California
SPOUSE: Al Joyner (1987-1998)
CHILD: Mary
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius

Florence Joyner, known widely as “Flo Jo,” was born Florence Delorez Griffith on December 21, 1959, in Los Angeles. Joyner began running at age 7, and her gift for speed soon became apparent. At 14 years old, she won the Jesse Owens National Youth Games. She later competed for Jordan High School, where she served as the anchor on the relay team, then went on to race at the college level.

She attended California State University at Northridge and ran for their track team under coach Bob Kersee, who continued to coach her for several years. She left school for financial reasons, but in 1980, Joyner enrolled at the University of California Los Angeles, where Kersee had recently accepted a position as an assistant track coach. She quickly earned a reputation as a track star. She became an NCAA champion in 1982 with a victory in the 200-meter event. The following year, she took the top spot in the 400-meter event. She graduated in 1983 with a degree in psychology.

Florence Joyner, seen here at the 1988 Olympic Games, won five Olympic medals and set two world records throughout her sprinting career.

Coached by Bob Kersee, Joyner made her Olympic debut in 1984, at the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. There, she won a silver medal for the 200-meter run and became known for her speed, form-fitting bodysuits, and brightly painted 6-inch fingernails.

Following the 1984 Olympic Games, Joyner entered semi-retirement, but she returned to track in the leadup to the 1988 Olympics and recommitted to training. During this time, Flo Jo trained with both Kersee and her husband, Al. Joyner’s hard work paid off. At the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis, she set a new women’s world record for the 100-meter run with a time of 10.49 seconds. Shortly afterward, she dropped Kersee and selected her husband to be her full-time coach.

At the 1988 Summer Olympics, held in Seoul, South Korea, she took home gold medals in the 4-by-100 meter relay and the 100- and 200-meter runs as well as a silver medal in the 4-by-400 meter relay. She also set a world record for the 200-meter run with a time of 21.34 seconds.

Joyner’s Olympic performance brought her all kinds of other accolades. She was named the Associated Press’ Female Athlete of the Year and Track and Field magazine’s Athlete of the Year. Joyner also won the Sullivan Award for best amateur athlete.

Throughout her athletic career, Flo Jo was known for her strong sense of style. Even as a child, she displayed great creativity and a bold fashion sense. She sewed clothes for her dolls and tried on her mother’s dresses, and she was once asked to leave a mall for wearing a pet snake around her neck as an accessory. As an adult, she channeled that creativity into styling her friends’ hair and nails.

Flo Jo was known for her style, including her long, brightly painted nails.

Joyner’s outfits on the track were legendary. She became known for wearing unitards with bold colors, like turquoise, purple, and yellow, and unique design elements, like hoods or fabric covering only one leg. She also upended convention by competing while wearing jewelry, sporting long, brightly painted fingernails, and leaving her hair down.

After the 1988 Olympics, Joyner retired from competition. Suspicions soon arose regarding how the so-called “world’s fastest woman” achieved her victories. Joyner and her coach, Bob Kersee, came under media speculation when another athlete suggested that Joyner had used performance-enhancing drugs. Some attributed the substantial improvements Joyner made in her performance levels from 1984 to 1988 to illegal substances. Others thought that her incredibly muscular physique had to have been created with the help of performance-enhancing drugs.

Rumors also spread regarding Kersee’s training techniques, suggesting he could have been encouraging his runners to use steroids or other drugs in order to win medals. Joyner always insisted that she never used performance enhancers, and she never failed a drug test. In fact, according to CNN.com, Joyner took and passed 11 drug tests in 1988 alone.

Joyner remained involved in athletics in her retirement. She was appointed co-chair of the President's Council on Physical Fitness in 1993 and went on to establish her own foundation for children in need. Nearly six years after the Seoul Olympics, in 1995, Joyner was honored with an induction into the Track and Field Hall of Fame. Around this time, she once again began training for the Olympics. But her comeback effort was curtailed by problems with her right Achilles tendon.

She also pursued creative endeavors, including acting. In 1989, the noted fashion icon was hired to design the uniforms for the Indiana Pacers basketball team. The Pacers used her design for seven seasons, coinciding with the team’s rise to prominence in the early to mid-nineties.

Florence Joyner and her husband, Al Joyner, at their Los Angeles home, circa 1988

In 1987, Florence Griffith married Al Joyner, the 1984 triple jump Olympic gold medalist and brother of famed athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Taking the legal name Florence Delorez Griffith-Joyner, she became publicly known as Florence Joyner, or “Flo Jo,” at this time.

Al and Florence first met in 1980 at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon. Al was immediately smitten, but the two didn’t start dating until 1986, when Al came to Los Angeles to train for the 1988 Olympics.

Al proposed to Joyner on July 17, 1987, and the couple initially planned to get married later the following year. However, an earthquake struck Los Angeles on October 1, and Flo Jo was spooked—she was suddenly afraid of dying before getting married. So they drove to Las Vegas and were married on October 10, 1987.

On November 13, 1990, the couple’s only child, Mary, was born. As a child, Mary competed in gymnastics and displayed a talent for singing—something her mother always yearned for. As she grew older, Mary also dabbled in track. Al continued coaching, including stints at UCLA and the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. He remarried in 2003.

Mary pursued a career as a singer, and she even appeared on America’s Got Talent in 2012. She also co-wrote and produced Flo Jo: A Daughter's Love, a short documentary about her mother, which was released in 2023. She launched Flo-Jo Forever, a business promoting her mother’s legacy, and also works as a gymnastics instructor.

Joyner died unexpectedly of an epileptic seizure on September 21, 1998, at her home in Mission Viejo, California. She was only 38 years old at the time and was survived by her husband, Al, and their daughter, Mary Joyner.

In 2021, a new biopic on Joyner was announced, with actor and comedian Tiffany Haddish producing the film and playing Joyner. Haddish grew up idolizing the track star. “I am looking forward to telling Flo-Jo’s story the way it should be told,” Haddish said in a statement. “My goal with this film is making sure that younger generations know my ‘she-ro’ Flo-Jo, the fastest woman in the world to this day, existed.”

Joyner’s widower, Al Joyner, is also a part of the project. He’s credited as a producer and creative consultant, and he’s helping Haddish train using the same methods his wife once used. “Working with Tiffany has been a great pleasure,” Al told Variety. “She is incredibly dedicated, focused, and committed to portraying the spirit of Florence accurately.”

A documentary series and podcast about Joyner are also planned in addition to the film.

• There’s no substitute for hard work... I have the medals to prove it!
• I know exactly what people are saying about me. And it’s simply not true. I don’t need to use drugs. They can come and test me every week of the year if they want to. I’ve got nothing to hide.
• The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.
• If you want to run like a man, you have to train like a man.
• I have the dream of running the marathon because I just love running. I’ll go out and just run and run and run along the roads. I love the fact of running.
• If I stop to kick every barking dog, I’m not going to get to the places I need to go.
• I wasn’t chasing a world record for the finals. I was just chasing a gold medal.
• If I can run relaxed and run right through the tape, the record will come.
• I’ve been in track and field for more than 20 years, and out of all my races, I’ve lost more than I’ve won. But it’s all been fun.

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