| | Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sometimes, there is no storybook
ending, even for the gracious queen of American track and field.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee's attempt for a fifth Olympic Games fell 7½
inches short in the women's long jump Sunday, her 38-year-old legs
unable to match those of a new generation of athletes led by the
great Marion Jones.
|  | | Jackie Joyner-Kersee advanced to the finals, but had to settle for a sixth-place finish in the long jump Sunday. |
"You know what, I could never be disappointed because I've been
on four Olympic teams," she said. "This was a long shot. I really
felt that maybe I could put it together, but I can't be
disappointed. Not to take anything away from the other jumpers.
"They deserve to go, and I deserve to go home and do what I was
doing before I decided to come back out."
Joyner-Kersee will have to settle for the six Olympic medals she
already has won, three of them gold. No other American female track
athlete has won as many.
She exited with her familiar laughter and a few trademark jabs
at her husband and coach, Bob Kersee.
Will she ever compete again?
"No," she said, "not even in the Masters. I'm going to tell
Bobby, 'Don't even try that."'
Both Joyner-Kersee and her husband insisted they did not regret
the comeback attempt.
"I told her I was proud of her," Kersee said. "I thought we
deserved to be out here. I was trying to get her over 22-5 because
I thought that was what it was going to take to make the team. I
would much rather leave her out here than be back in St. Louis
wondering whether or not we could have done it."
Joyner-Kersee had been retired for two years when she began her
workouts in April.
Three months were not enough for her to get into shape for such
serious competition, she said. Although she advanced through
Friday's preliminaries, and made it past Sunday's first round into
the final, her technique was off and she lacked her trademark
aggressiveness. After every jump, she would shake her head as if to
wonder where the magic had gone.
Her best, 21 feet, 10½ inches on her third jump, was nearly
three feet short of her American record and good enough for only
sixth place.
"I really thought we could do it," Joyner-Kersee said, "but I
didn't know if the window of time was enough. We didn't start until
April. Was that enough time?"
Joyner-Kersee felt something wrong in her hamstring after her
fourth jump. She passed on her fifth jump, then ran through on her
last jump.
"I felt something in my leg and it just kind of grabbed," she
said. "I mean, I hate going out like that, but I'd rather walk
away walking."
Throughout the competition, she offered encouragement to Jones,
who fouled on her first attempt and needed a legal jump in her
third to make it to the finals.
When it was over, and Jones had leaped 23-0{, the two sat down
on the edge of the track, the sport's past and present superstars,
to watch the women's 400-meter final.
Don't however, try to tell Joyner-Kersee that the day
represented a symbolic transfer of the sport from her hands into
Jones.
"For me this was it," Joyner-Kersee said with a laugh.
"There's nothing symbolic about it."
Jones has repeatedly called Joyner-Kersee "my Olympic hero and
idol."
But she and Joyner-Kersee know the reality of the intense,
do-or-die Olympic Trials competition.
"I would have loved to have Jackie on this team," Jones said.
"I think it would have been wonderful, but I think Jackie
understands and I understand that everybody's out there to jump
their farthest, and to try to get on this team.
"That doesn't take anything else from Jackie. She's still, in a
lot of our opinions, the greatest ever, and nothing will ever take
away from that."
| |
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Jones gets scare; Joyner-Kersee fails in long jump
Runyan overcomes adversity to earn ticket to Sydney
Johnson completes formality of qualifying for Olympics
U.S. Track & Field Trials results, Day 3
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