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50 free Jackie Joyner-Kersee trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Jackie Joyner-Kersee trivia quiz follows the East St. Louis girl named after a First Lady from a community track programme at nine to a UCLA scholarship, where she started at forward for the Bruins basketball team while becoming the best heptathlete in history. It covers the five-point loss to Glynis Nunn in Los Angeles, the first 7,000-point heptathlon, the 1988 Seoul double gold with a 7,291-point world record that still stands, and the long jump medals of Barcelona and Atlanta. The rest of the quiz looks at the seven events of the heptathlon and their order, her personal bests, the coach she married, the brother who won triple jump gold in 1984 and the sister-in-law who was Flo-Jo, the doping allegations she has always denied, the asthma she competed with, her brief pro basketball career with the Richmond Rage, and the awards, from the Sullivan Award to the USATF prize renamed in her honour. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Olympic athletics and track and field quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which two disciplines did Jackie Joyner-Kersee win her Olympic medals?
Heptathlon and long jump
She won three golds, one silver and two bronzes across four Games from 1984 to 1996.
Q 02How many Olympic medals did Joyner-Kersee win in total?
Six
Three gold, one silver and two bronze, spread over four different Olympic Games.
Q 03In which Illinois city was Jackie Joyner born in 1962?
East St. Louis
Her foundation still encourages young people there to pursue athletics and academics.
Q 04After whom was the future champion, born Jacqueline Joyner, named?
Jackie Kennedy
She was born into a poor family and found her love of running at nine in a community track programme.
Q 05A film about which multi-sport star inspired the young Joyner to take up combined events?
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Sports Illustrated for Women later voted Joyner-Kersee the greatest female athlete of all time, just ahead of Zaharias.
Q 06Behind which fellow high schooler did Jackie Joyner finish eighth in the long jump final at the 1980 Olympic Trials?
Carol Lewis
Lewis is the sister of Carl Lewis; the US boycotted the Moscow Games that year anyway.
Q 07At which university did Joyner-Kersee star in both track and basketball?
UCLA
She started at forward for the Bruins for four seasons and scored 1,167 career points.
Q 08Which position did Joyner-Kersee play for the UCLA basketball team?
Forward
In 1998 she was named one of the 15 greatest players in UCLA women's basketball history.
Q 09Why did Joyner-Kersee redshirt the 1983–84 basketball season?
To focus on the heptathlon before the 1984 Olympics
She returned for a fifth season in 1984–85, when the Bruins reached the NCAA West Regional semifinals.
Q 10How many points did she score in her college basketball career?
1,167
That placed her 19th on the Bruins' all-time list.
Q 11Of what illness did Joyner-Kersee's mother die suddenly while Jackie was at college?
Meningitis
Her coach Bob Kersee helped her grieve, and the two married after she graduated.
Q 12In what subject did Joyner-Kersee earn her bachelor's degree in 1986?
History
She had attended UCLA on an athletic scholarship.
Q 13Which award, given to the nation's best female collegiate athlete, did Joyner-Kersee win in 1985?
The Honda-Broderick Cup
She also won the Broderick Award for track and field in 1983 and 1985.
Q 21What mishap befell Joyner-Kersee in the 1991 World Championships long jump after she had won?
Slipped on the board and fell headfirst into the pit
The strained hamstring forced her out of the heptathlon during the 200 m.
Q 22Who won the long jump at Barcelona 1992, where Joyner-Kersee took bronze?
Heike Drechsler
The German was her friend; Joyner-Kersee won her second heptathlon gold at the same Games.
Q 23After which event did she withdraw from the 1996 Atlanta heptathlon with a hamstring injury?
The hurdles
Q 14By how many points did she lose the 1984 Olympic gold to Australia's Glynis Nunn?
Five
She had been the favourite in Los Angeles and also finished fifth in the long jump.
Q 15At which 1986 event did she become the first woman to score over 7,000 in the heptathlon?
The Goodwill Games
That year she also received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.
Q 16Which honour, given to the top amateur athlete in the United States, did she receive in 1986?
The James E. Sullivan Award
She won the Jesse Owens Award as US track athlete of the year in 1986 and 1987 as well.
Q 17At which Olympics did Joyner-Kersee win gold in both of her events?
Seoul 1988
She was the first American woman to win Olympic gold in either event.
Q 18What is her still-standing heptathlon world record score, set in 1988?
7,291
She also owns the six best heptathlon scores in history.
Q 19What Olympic-record distance did Joyner-Kersee jump to win the 1988 long jump gold?
7.40 m
It came five days after her heptathlon triumph.
Q 20Which Brazilian runner publicly accused Joyner-Kersee of drug use at the 1988 Games?
Joaquim Cruz
She has always maintained that she competed without performance-enhancing drugs.
She recovered enough to grab long jump bronze with a final leap of 7.00 m.
Q 24For which team did Joyner-Kersee play professional basketball in 1996?
Richmond Rage
She played 17 games in the fledgling American Basketball League, with a high of 15 points.
Q 25How many heptathlon points did she score to win at the 1998 event in New York?
6,502
Two years later she failed to make the 2000 Olympic long jump team, placing sixth at the trials.
Q 26Whom did Jackie Joyner marry in 1986?
Her coach Bob Kersee
He also coached Florence Griffith Joyner, Gail Devers, Allyson Felix and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
Q 27In which event did her brother Al Joyner win Olympic gold in 1984?
Triple jump
He was the first African American in 80 years to win the event.
Q 28Which sprint star, known as Flo-Jo, was married to Jackie's brother Al?
Florence Griffith
She set world records in the 100 m and 200 m in 1988 and died at 38 in 1998.
Q 29What 100 m world record did Flo-Jo set at the 1988 US Olympic trials?
10.49 seconds
It beat Evelyn Ashford's record by 0.27 seconds and still stands.
Q 30From which chronic condition did Joyner-Kersee suffer throughout her athletic career?
Severe asthma
It never stopped her running the 800 m that closes every heptathlon.