A Kind of Grace (2 page)

“I don't think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace.”

—Jackie Joyner-Kersee
to Tom Callahan of
Time,
September 1988

Prologue

A
sense of nervous anticipation was building in the moist and muggy Atlanta air that late July morning. It was an hour before the heptathlon competition at the 1996 Olympic Games and the serious business of preparing for combat was well underway on the warmup track. Coaches reviewed strategy on the sidelines, while their athletes limbered up on the infield. Around them, competitors of every race, nationality and shoe company affiliation paraded around the jogging track, as television crews from NBC and CNN moved into position, angling for pictures and sound bites.

Sprinkled among the group were my opponents, the world's most versatile and gifted female athletes. They included Sabine Braun of Germany, Ghada Shouaa of Syria, Natasha Sazanovich of Belarus, Denise Lewis of Great Britain and Kelly Blair of the United States. Every four years, such a group gathered at an Olympic venue to contest the heptathlon, a two-day, seven-part trial of endurance and skill. To claim victory, a woman must outperform her competitors in negotiating 100 meters of track and hurdles, clearing the high-jump bar, throwing the javelin, sprinting 200 meters, leaping into the long-jump pit, putting the shot and running 800 meters. Her reward at the culmination of the grueling ordeal is an Olympic gold medal and the designation “World's Greatest Female Athlete.”

Over the past thirteen years, the event had repeatedly tested my mettle. I had conquered opponents both human and inhumane: the East Germans, the Russians, drenching rains, extreme heat, pain, exhaustion, dehydration, asthma. Between 1984 and the beginning of 1996, I won every single heptathlon I completed, posting the six highest scores in the sport's history, setting four world records, winning two World Championships, and capturing two Olympic gold medals along the way.

Impressive as my record was, I didn't feel the least bit invincible that morning in Atlanta. Splayed on my stomach across a white bath towel on the infield grass, I thought only of my ailing right thigh. The fingers of my physical therapist, Bob Forster, furiously massaged the knot of hamstring muscle and scar tissue inside the thigh, still tender from the severe pull I'd suffered three weeks earlier. Gold medals and world records were far from my mind. Given the precarious condition of my leg, my goal was simply to survive the four events on the day's schedule.

My elaborate plans for a final Olympic heptathlon triumph were slowly unraveling. I'd chosen this occasion as the perfect opportunity for a swan song. I'd made my Olympic debut at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. Now, after achieving so much on foreign soil—a world record in Moscow, gold medals in Seoul and Barcelona, world championships in Rome and Stuttgart—I wanted to close out my participation in this event in my homeland, with the eyes of the world watching.

There were still a few springs left in my legs for long jumping, my other specialty. But my days as a heptathlete were numbered. I still held the heptathlon world record, at 7,291 points, but the rigorous training and arduous competitions were taking a toll on my body, chipping away at my muscle mass and sapping my energy. As well, my chronic asthma condition was affecting me more and more on the track. I'd come close to dying
off the
track. I wanted to spend my final moment as a heptathlete on the medal stand, not on an ambulance stretcher.

I was drained emotionally, too. Dominance, I'd learned over the years, brings both adulation and attacks. No sooner had the “greatest female athlete” crown been placed on my head in 1988 than the efforts to knock it off began. I faced unfounded accusations of steroid use, heard unkind remarks about my appearance, and read hypercritical reviews of my performances. I tried to endure it all with good cheer. But in truth, the sniping hurt me deeply. If, as the critics kept saying, I was only as good as my last heptathlon performance, I wanted the final one in Atlanta to be my best of all.

But things started going awry in June at the Olympic Trials. I sprained an ankle, pulled my right hamstring, and battled a cold and an asthma attack during the meet and lost by three points to Kelly Blair, who performed magnificently as I struggled. It was my first defeat in twelve years. Then, just twenty-one days before the Olympics, the scar tissue gnarled around my right hamstring jerked away from the muscle while I was airborne over a hurdle. When the pain registered, I jumped and fell to the track, screaming in agony and rage. My leg had been obstinate since then. Each time I tried to blast out of the starting blocks or push across the shot-put ring in practice, the pain was excruciating. I hadn't been able to test the leg's strength, to employ it as I would have to in competition.

Now, with the moment at hand and my therapist's fingers furiously kneading that scar tissue and all the other tortured muscle fibers, I winced and wondered. Was my hamstring strong enough for the task ahead? How would it respond when I called on it to help me get over 100 meters of track and hurdles, to clear the high-jump bar, to provide the power to throw the javelin and, after all of that, to run 200 meters at world-class speed?

I had no idea.

As I walked into the packed Olympic Stadium, the sky turned gloomy. Raindrops dotted my legs and arms as we lined up in front of the blocks for the hurdle race. The drops became sprinkles and turned quickly into sheets of showers. The starter called us to the blocks and I insisted to myself that I was ready. Staring down my lane at the arrayed hurdles, I focused on starting strong and moving steadily forward, one step at a time.

I shot out of the blocks without pain. A good sign. I was in front heading into the series of hurdles. First, second, third, fourth. All cleared. So far, so good. Fifth, sixth … oh, God! The hamstring pulled as I stepped over the seventh.

“Keep going,” I told myself. “Don't stop. It hurts, but there are only three left.”

I gathered all my strength, and tackled the eighth. My cheeks puffing furiously, I gritted my teeth to cushion the pain as I landed. I pushed on to the ninth. Another deep breath, the jump, the wince, the exhale. One more. I gritted my teeth as I cleared it. Then, a grimace at the finish line. I made it! Not only was I still in the competition, I'd won the heat. Now, to get some help for my throbbing leg.

Dripping wet, I grabbed my gear and hobbled toward my husband and coach, Bobby Kersee. I was panting and in terrible pain, but I stopped on the way for a brief interview in the downpour with Cris Collinsworth of NBC, who held an umbrella over us. Between gasps, I told him, “I want to stay positive, take it one event at a time and let my physical therapist get in there and dig out whatever's in the muscle.”

We went to the coaches' room, hoping to use one of the massage tables. But they wouldn't allow Bobby inside, even though he was my coach, because he didn't have the proper pass. So, the three of us, Bobby, Bob the therapist and I, climbed a flight of stairs inside the stadium to the concession area, where we found a little-used handicap-access ramp. I threw down a towel and stretched out on my stomach. Bobby and Bob went to work with ice packs and massaging hands to quiet the spasms inside my thigh. Spectators watching us from their seats applauded and shouted encouragement. “We love you, Jackie!” “You're the best!” “Good luck!”

Hearing them, I wished with all my heart that I'd be able to continue.

The spasms eventually subsided. And after an hour-and-a-half rain delay, the heptathletes were moving to the high-jump apron. The nice people who'd watched my therapy session cheered as I made my way down to the field. I took a practice jump at a very low height and knocked the bar down. I knew I was in trouble. But I refused to surrender. I walked across the track to the stadium railing, where Bobby was standing. “It feels like it's pulling,” I said. “If I accelerate, I don't know what will happen. I'll try the next height and see.”

I turned and walked away. As I crossed the track and reached the high-jump apron, I heard Bobby's voice over my shoulder. He'd jumped over the railing and was walking up behind me. “That's it, Jackie,” he shouted. “I'm not going to let you do this.”

I knew if he was on the track I was already finished in the competition because he didn't have a pass. But I protested anyway. “No, Bobby, I want to try. Let me at least
try.
”

He led me to the tent where the heptathletes had gathered. We sat on the grass. He looked at me and said, “I've watched you for twelve years give everything you've got. I'm no longer going to allow you to do this. It's time to go.”