Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the heptathlon event at the 1992 USA Track and IS GOLDEN Field Olympic Trials not just read about me—to know I’m After hurdling every challenge, from this community and that they, too, can be successful,” Joyner-Kersee says. she’s on a legacy track “You have to start at the grassroots level before you can become an Olympian.” hen more than 10,000 foundation operates a 60,000-square- And start at grassroots she did. She’s athletes converge on Rio foot community center offering an never forgotten where she came from Wde Janeiro for the 2016 after-school computer lab, gym, dance and how she got to “here.” At 9 years Summer Olympics, millions of view- and fitness classes, and a multipurpose old, she couldn’t imagine standing on ers will tune in for the popular track area for special events. an Olympic podium, winning medals and field events. As fans watch their “This foundation will outlive me. I not once, not twice, but six times in favorites go for gold, many will remem- wanted young people to see me, and track and field. ber one competitor who will be forever The second of four children, Joyner- synonymous with track and field: Jackie Kersee recognized the power of Joyner-Kersee. perseverance early. “I always knew While the bright gleam on her med- when I started running that I wasn’t one als may have diminished slightly, of the best girls,” she says. “So I set my Joyner-Kersee’s motivation and dis- sights on just running a tenth of a second cipline have not. Since retiring from faster or jumping a half-inch higher.” competitive sports, she’s trained her She listened to her coaches, working championship mentality on being a hard to do what they asked. She soon role model for people in her hometown began to improve—and to dream big. of East St. Louis, Illinois. Really big. There, the Jackie Joyner-Kersee “I realized when I turned 14 and saw Foundation works to instill young the 1976 Olympic Games that there people with the dreams, drive and Jackie Joyner-Kersee reads to children were girls winning in track and field determination necessary to succeed in during the International Literacy Day event who looked like me: women like Wilma

academics, athletics and leadership. The at the Library of Congress. Rudolph, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and DOUGLAS GRAHAM MADISON, DAVID GETTY IMAGES; LANCE OMAR THURMAN

8 HEALTH TO YOU | H2U.COM Evelyn Ashford. One day I said, ‘I want grass around me, a high pollen count result is wheezing, shortness of breath to make the Olympic team.’” and wind blowing, I would wheeze,” she and fatigue. She began setting achievable goals says. “At first we thought it was exercise- In late 1987, a year before the 1988 for herself, realizing that she wouldn’t induced asthma, but eventually I was Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, always win every race. That didn’t diagnosed with chronic asthma.” Joyner-Kersee experienced her first bother her, she says, because she was serious asthma attack, which both ter- doing what she loved, even when it Asthma as Opponent rified and motivated her. meant giving up the normal life other Exercise doesn’t cause asthma, but “I was no longer living in denial, girls her age had. it does cause faster, deeper breathing and I began to work with a pulmon- The long hours and hard daily work through the mouth. Air that enters ologist [a specialist who treats lung “was all part of the process,” Joyner- the lungs through the mouth is usu- disease],” she says. “I didn’t want to Kersee says. ally drier and cooler than air taken in have an attack while I was competing, by the nose, which can cause airways but also knew I couldn’t control the From Denial to Truth to narrow in people with asthma. The environment.” Though she’s become one of the United States’ most lauded athletes, Joyner-Kersee faced one obstacle at the height of her athletic career that could have squashed her dreams and “This prevented her from competing at all. foundation As a freshman at the University of will outlive California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with me. I wanted both basketball and track-and-field scholarships, Joyner-Kersee looked young people like the picture of health. So it came as to see me, a shock when she was diagnosed with and not just asthma. read about “I didn’t know what was going on,” me—to know she says. “I was having symptoms in I’m from this high school, and we basically ignored community them, because it was like, well, I can still and that they, run, jump and throw.” too, can be When she complained about breath- successful.” ing problems in college, she was told she had bronchitis and was given antibiot- ics. Another time, the doctors thought she had mononucleosis. Thankfully, her track coach Bob Kersee—whom she married in 1986—had worked with other people with asthma. He urged her to have a skin prick test by an allergist to check her sensitivity to allergens in her environment. “Test results showed I was basically allergic to everything, and that my trig- gers included grass, dust, pollen and seafood,” she says. She continued to compete as a world- class athlete, except on the days when nature interfered. “I’d be fine on Tuesday,

GETTY IMAGES; DAVID MADISON, DOUGLAS GRAHAM MADISON, DAVID GETTY IMAGES; LANCE OMAR THURMAN and then on Wednesday, with fresh-cut

SUMMER 2016 9 JACKIE JOYNER-KERSEE: For the Record Books which she calls her “habits for life.” They include brisk walking, which had Olympic champion always been a part of her training, lifting Joyner-Kersee officially weights for strength, and lots of stretch- retired from track and field ing. She also does interval training, a in 2000 when she was 38. series of low- to high-intensity exer- Yet, today she is still con- cises mixed in with brief rest periods. sidered by many to be the “My body craves more because I was greatest female all-around always used to doing more,” she says. athlete in history. Her bevy When it comes to food, she also has of medals are proof: She cravings, and not always the healthy won six Olympic medals— kind. “Yes, potato chips have been a three gold, a silver and two problem,” she says with a chuckle. For bronze—from 1984 to 1996. She also claimed four gold medals at the the most part, though, she sticks with World Outdoor Championships. healthy foods and moderate portions. “I just make sure I don’t overindulge, Joyner-Kersee still holds the world record of 7.291 points in women’s which is a continuation of behavior heptathlon, which includes the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, from when I competed.” 200-meter sprint, long jump, javelin throw and an 800-meter race. Cognizant of the health connections between mind and body, she makes By then, she considered doctors as was also struggling to manage her respi- sure to surround herself with posi- coaches and asthma as one of her oppo- ratory symptoms because the medicines tive energy from positive people. She nents. She admits it was tempting to allowed by the IAAF had unwelcome began meditating early in life to man- forgo medication when, after taking it, side effects such as drowsiness and age stress. she felt better, almost like “I didn’t have slowness. “I believe there’s a solution to what- the disease,” she says. “No one wants to ever the problem is, and I work hard to be labeled with a disease.” Habits for Life see that light at the end of the tunnel,” To maintain her edge over asthma, In 1993, Joyner-Kersee suffered an Joyner-Kersee says. “I also recognize she carried a portable peak flow meter asthma attack she says almost killed when I need to get out of my own way, to measure her lungs’ ability to expel air her. She later described the attack as and when I don’t have all the answers.” and charted her readings. If numbers feeling like a pillow had been shoved That combination of optimism and dropped lower than normal, she knew over her face. “I’ll never forget the panic humility has helped her overcome set- something was off. of being completely unable to breathe, backs, including the temporary closing A peak flow meter can show changes no matter how hard I tried. That attack a few years ago of the community cen- in breathing before you notice them, was so scary that it forced me to begin ter that bears her name. But like any according to the American Lung following a preventive treatment plan.” champion, Joyner-Kersee never gave Association. By monitoring their meter And she has stuck with that plan. Her up her dream to make life better for readings, people with asthma know current treatment regimen includes the residents of East St. Louis. Today, when to start following the steps on oral medication, long-term control thanks to new partnerships and indi- their asthma action plan. inhalers, short-term “rescue” inhalers vidual donations, the welcoming doors After winning Olympic gold in Seoul and allergy pills. of her foundation are wide open, and the previous summer, she had to with- “I live in the Midwest, where the local children are streaming in and draw from a major meet in France in weather can be iffy,” says Joyner- learning how to thrive. September 1989. She had suffered an Kersee. “I try not to be hardheaded, In a 2012 interview with the St. Louis asthma attack that sent her to the hos- though I thought by now I would have Post-Dispatch, Joyner-Kersee told the pital where she received injections of grown out of it! I try to be smart about reporter: “I believe in me. And I believe anti-inflammatory drugs banned by what I do and stay in shape.” in the dreams of the young people.” the International Amateur Athletics She says she knew that once she It’s that kind of conviction that has Federation (IAAF). She recalls feeling stopped running competitively, she made her one of the “greats,” both on

like she had walking pneumonia. She would need to stick to a healthy regimen, the track and off.n MADISON DAVID GETTY IMAGES;

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