Florence griffith joyner biography track and field
Biography, medals, & facts.
Florence griffith joyner biography track and field
Griffith Joyner, Florence Delorez ("Flo Jo")
(b. 21 December 1959 in Los Angeles, California; d. 21 September 1998 in Mission Viejo, California), flamboyant track athlete and champion sprinter who was the first American woman to win four medals in one Olympics.
The seventh of eleven children, Griffith Joyner was four when her parents, Robert, an electronics technician and Florence, a seamstress, divorced.
Mother and children moved from the Mojave Desert, where the Griffith family had been living, to the Jordan Downs housing project in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Griffith Joyner began running track at age seven at the 92nd Street Elementary School.
She said that she ran because she could just "get in the wind" and because it helped her to stand out from her siblings. When visiting her father in the Mojave Desert, she chased jackrabbits to improve her speed. In elementary and junior high school, Griffith Joyner competed in the 50- and 70-meter dashes at events h