49 Fun Facts About Florence Griffith Joyner

What was Florence Griffith Joyner's famous nickname?

Flo-Jo, a contraction of Florence and Joyner, became her name worldwide during her record-breaking 1988 season, when she set world records at both 100 and 200 metres.

What world-record 100 m time did Griffith Joyner run at the 1988 US Olympic trials?

10.49 beat Evelyn Ashford's record by 0.27 seconds, by far the biggest improvement since electronic timing began.

What was Griffith Joyner's world-record time in the 200 metres final at the 1988 Olympics?

Her 21.34 in the Olympic final on 29 September 1988 took 0.22 off the 21.56 world record she had set in the semi-final earlier that day.

Griffith Joyner won three golds at the 1988 Summer Olympics, held in which city?

The 1988 Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea, from 17 September to 2 October; her 100 m win there came in 10.54 seconds.

How many Olympic medals did Griffith Joyner win in total at the 1988 Games?

In Seoul she took four medals, three gold and one silver; only Fanny Blankers-Koen, with four golds in 1948, had a bigger single-Games haul by a female track and field athlete.

In which relay did Griffith Joyner win her only silver at the 1988 Olympics?

It was her first internationally rated 4 x 400; her 4 x 100 team took gold.

By roughly how much did she beat Evelyn Ashford in the 1988 Olympic 100 m final?

She won in 10.54 to Ashford's 10.83, a margin of about 0.30 seconds; Ashford, a fellow UCLA alumna, had held the world record before the 1988 trials.

What did the wind gauge read during her record trials run, despite the windy conditions?

Studies have since estimated an illegal tailwind of 5 to 7 m/s; the IAAF never annulled the mark but statisticians list it as 'probably strongly wind assisted'.

Which sprinter equalled Griffith Joyner's 10.61 in the 2020 Olympic 100 m final and beat it in Eugene in 2021?

Elaine Thompson-Herah ran 10.61 to win the Tokyo 2020 final, matching Griffith Joyner's 1988 trials-final time, then 10.54 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene in August 2021, the second-fastest time ever at that point.

In which Los Angeles neighbourhood's Jordan Downs public housing complex did Griffith grow up?

Jordan Downs is a public housing project in the Watts district of South Los Angeles; she grew up there and ran for the local David Starr Jordan High School.

How many children were in the Griffith family, of whom Florence was the seventh?

Florence was the seventh of eleven children of Robert and Florence Griffith, who separated when she was young; her mother raised the family in Los Angeles.

Which athletics event for young people did she win two years running at ages 14 and 15?

She won the Jesse Owens National Youth Games at ages 14 and 15, having started running at weekend meets of the Sugar Ray Robinson Youth Foundation while in elementary school.

What job did Griffith take when she had to drop out of college to support her family?

She worked as a bank teller after leaving Cal State Northridge in 1979 to support her family; her coach found her financial aid and she returned to college at UCLA in 1980.

In what subject did Griffith graduate from UCLA in 1983?

She graduated from UCLA with a degree in psychology in 1983, having begun her college career at California State University, Northridge, and transferred in 1980.

Why did Griffith not compete at the 1980 Olympics after reaching the 100 metres final at the US trials?

The United States boycotted the Moscow Games over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, so the 1980 trials, where she reached the 100 m final, decided nothing.

Which teammate beat Griffith to 200 m gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?

Valerie Brisco-Hooks won the 200 m in an Olympic record 21.81, with Griffith second in 22.04; Brisco-Hooks also took the 400 m and 4 x 400 m relay golds in Los Angeles.

In which city did Griffith Joyner take 200 metres silver at the 1987 World Championships?

At the 1987 World Championships in Rome she took 200 m silver behind East Germany's Silke Gladisch and won gold in the 4 x 100 m relay.

What was her 100 metres personal best before the 1988 season, a time not even in the top 40 of all time?

She improved it by 0.47 seconds in a single year, which fuelled the doping suspicions.

Whom did Griffith marry in 1987?

Al Joyner, the 1984 triple jump champion, married her on 10 October 1987; the two had first met at the 1980 Olympic trials.

In which California city is Griffith Joyner buried, at El Toro Memorial Park?

El Toro Memorial Park is in Lake Forest, Orange County, California; she was buried there after her death in September 1998.

Which coach did Griffith Joyner leave in July 1988, saying she wanted more personal attention?

Bob Kersee, who also coached Jackie Joyner-Kersee, lost her in July 1988 when she complained that he demanded his athletes use his management services; Al Joyner then became her full-time coach.

Griffith Joyner's nails, painted red, white, blue and gold for the 1988 Olympics, were famously how long?

Six inches, up from the four-inch tiger-striped nails she wore at the trials before switching to fuchsia.

What unusual garment did she wear at the 1987 World Championships?

Unlike most sprinters she also kept her hair long and wore jewellery while racing.

What did the teenage Griffith persuade her high-school track team to wear with their uniforms?

She talked her Jordan High team into racing in tights, an early sign of her flair; by graduation in 1978 she held school records in the sprints and the long jump.

In which month and year did Griffith Joyner abruptly announce her retirement from racing?

She announced her retirement on 25 February 1989, five months after Seoul and shortly before The Athletics Congress introduced mandatory random out-of-competition drug testing.

Which honour for the top US amateur athlete did she receive for 1988, the month after retiring?

The James E. Sullivan Award, given since 1930 to the top US amateur athlete, went to her for 1988; she was also named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.

In which country did most of her lucrative post-Olympic endorsement deals come from?

She also signed with LJN Toys for a Barbie-like doll in her likeness.

For which NBA team did Griffith Joyner design the uniforms in 1989?

The same year she played herself in an episode of the sitcom 227.

In which soap opera did she appear in 1992 as a photographer named Terry Holloway?

Santa Barbara, the NBC daytime soap set in the California coastal city, gave her a 1992 role as photographer Terry Holloway, one of several acting cameos after she retired.

Which presidential body did she co-chair from 1993 to 1998?

President Clinton named her co-chair of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in 1993, alongside former congressman Tom McMillen, a post she held until her death in 1998.

Griffith Joyner went on Charlie Rose in 1996 to announce a comeback concentrating on which event?

The 400 metres was the target of the comeback she announced on Charlie Rose in 1996, with an eye on a third world record, but an injury ended the attempt before the Olympic trials.

How old was Griffith Joyner when she died in her sleep in September 1998?

She was 38, born on 21 December 1959 and found dead on 21 September 1998; the Orange County coroner ruled she had suffocated during a severe epileptic seizure.

What congenital condition, found after her death, predisposed her to seizures?

The autopsy found a cavernous hemangioma, a congenital cluster of malformed blood vessels in the brain, that predisposed her to seizures; she had suffered one in 1990 and been treated for others in 1993 and 1994.

Which former teammate claimed in 1989 that he had sold Griffith Joyner human growth hormone for $2,000?

Darrell Robinson, a US 400 m runner, told Germany's Stern magazine in 1989 that he had sold her growth hormone for $2,000; he offered no proof and she called him a 'compulsive, crazy, lying lunatic'.

After her death, what did IOC medical chairman Prince Alexandre de Merode say about the extra drug tests she faced in 1988?

'We never found anything. There should not be the slightest suspicion.' De Merode said every possible analysis had been run, by leading expert Manfred Donike; she passed every competition test she took.

What was Griffith Joyner's personal motto?

It grew out of her family's motto, 'if you try, try again'.

What was the name of the daughter Griffith Joyner and Al Joyner had in November 1990?

Mary Ruth Joyner was born on 15 November 1990, two years after her mother's Seoul triumph and a year after her retirement from racing.

In which year was Griffith Joyner inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame?

She entered the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1995, six years after retiring, while her 100 m and 200 m world records from 1988 were both intact.

Which Los Angeles elementary that she attended as a child was renamed after her in 2000?

The 102nd Street School in Watts, which she attended, became Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary in 2000; Time's 2020 '100 Women of the Year' list named her its woman of 1988.

By how many seconds did Florence Griffith Joyner win the 1988 Olympic 200 metres final?

Grace Jackson took silver, missing the old world record by a hundredth of a second and still not looking in contention.

What US record did Griffith Joyner set in the 200 metres at the 1988 Olympic trials?

It signalled she could take on the East Germans who had dominated the sprints for a decade.

What was Griffith Joyner's nickname among her own family?

The world knew her as Flo-Jo, but at home she was Dee Dee; her family motto was 'if you try, try again'.

To which hurdler was Griffith briefly engaged before marrying Al Joyner?

Greg Foster, the 1984 Olympic 110 m hurdles silver medallist and three-time world champion, was briefly her fiancé before she married Al Joyner in October 1987.

On which sitcom did Griffith Joyner make a fourth-season guest appearance as herself?

The 1989 cameo came the same year she designed the Indiana Pacers' uniforms, part of a busy post-track life in entertainment and design.

Which toy maker signed a deal with Griffith Joyner for a Barbie-like doll in her likeness?

LJN Toys, better known for wrestling figures and video games, signed her for a Barbie-like doll after Seoul, at a time when her endorsement income ran into millions.

In which California town did the Griffith family live before moving to Jordan Downs in Watts?

The Griffiths lived in Littlerock, a Mojave Desert town in Los Angeles County, until her parents separated and her mother moved the children to Jordan Downs, where Florence joined weekend track meets while in elementary school.

What was the profession of Griffith Joyner's father, Robert?

Robert Griffith worked as an electrician, and his wife Florence as a seamstress, a craft their daughter echoed in designing her own racing outfits.

In which Orange County city was Griffith Joyner at home when she died in her sleep in 1998?

She died at her home in Mission Viejo on 21 September 1998; the city later opened Florence Joyner Olympiad Park at the entrance to her Canyon Crest neighbourhood.

What ended Griffith Joyner's 1996 comeback attempt before the US Olympic trials?

Tendinitis in her right leg ended the 1996 comeback before the Olympic trials; she had hoped to add the 400 m world record to her 100 m and 200 m marks.