Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Thanks so much.

So for the audience, if you don't know her, so this is Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

She's a six-time Olympic medalist from East St. Louis, Illinois, which is widely considered the greatest female athlete of all time of the 20th century.

Her heptathlon world record of 7,291 points set at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

That stood for 38 years, and no athlete has come within 250 points of it since.

She runs the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation on a 100-acre campus in her hometown, where she recently opened an invention center, giving kids hands-on access to STEM, agriculture, and nutrition.

Welcome, Jackie.

Well, thank you.

And the retirement homes are not filled with guys who are six foot nine inches tall.

Guys, what about Jackie Joyner-Kersee? That's a great thought.

Olympic hero.

Yeah, could

And we'll talk some hockey.

Joey Vitale.

Guys, JJK has to be on that list.

JJK, multiple votes, and then there's a random Jeremy Hazelbaker vote from Dem Hogs.

The song would go on to win Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Also in 1988, American heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee set a new world record with 7,291 points to win the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics.

At those same Olympics, American swimmer Matt Biondi set a world record of 22.14 seconds to win the 50-meter freestyle gold.

And also at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson ran the 100-meter dash in 9.79 seconds to win gold.

helped to see those pictures.

And I knew like some of the is a Jackie Joyner, Kirsey.

I always do it backwards.

Florence.

They were all reverence, you know, to each other.

And Jackie Joyner, they were all bowing to her.

It was

interesting.

I promised to remain humble forever, but he doesn't seem to believe me.

Well, you've mentioned interviewing many different athletes, including six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who has given you an endorsement in your book.

So what does their support mean to you and the overarching message that you're trying to share with young women today? You

know, I was absolutely blown away by just the support that I received from female athletes when I was writing this book.

He had stayed involved in sports, though, as a physiotherapist, treating world-class runners with a technique that used electrical stimulation to heal injuries.

Among those he administered to were track superstars Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Okay, so two of the biggest American track stars of all time, multiple gold medal

winners.

So that was my first competition and my first sort of taste of seeing all these people that I had only seen on television.

I saw Jackie Joyner-Kersee for the first time in person.

And I didn't even know enough to be afraid, which sort of helped me to make the finals at that championships, because sometimes you're so young and you're so green, you don't even know that you're in an environment that you're supposed to be intimidated by.

I was just like, oh, wow, this is amazing.

If people who are listening don't know how it works, if let's say there's 50 jumpers at the Olympics, they split you into two groups.

One group of 25, second group of 25, you jump at the same time and the people with the top 12 distances after three jumps move on to the finals.

So I just happened to be designated in the same group as Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

I was in the order of jumpers ahead of her.