Jackie Joyner-Kersee Quotes

• Your environment doesn’t define you. I don’t have a lot of money, but I can help train people and I can talk to people. We can all be mentors to the next generation.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Money

  Tags in Define

• It’s important to me to try and expose young people to the things they believe are off-limits to them. I tell them, ‘There are no walls, only the ones we put up.’ My advice to young people looking at my life is not to follow my footprint but to go out there and make their own.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Expose, Young

• My denial and irresponsible attitude about asthma put me at great risk and caused me so much needless suffering. My hope is that the kids I talk to learn to open up about their asthma, become educated about their condition, and seek help.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Asthma, Irresponsible

• My passion for giving is no different than yours. I give because it’s in my heart to give. I give because I was taught to give at a very early age. This is how I developed my passion for giving.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Giving, Developed

• Some people are embarrassed to say they came from East St. Louis, Ill., but now more people want to claim it. I grew up in a community center and I knew what it gave me. I always knew I wanted to give back and help people because people helped me.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Claim, Embarrassed

• There are a lot of other people that really play a significant role in helping you become an Olympian.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Helping, Significant

• There are few restrictions on your life with asthma, as long as you take care of yourself.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Restrictions, Asthma

• What people need to know is that asthma isn’t a minor ‘wheeze-disease.’ It kills over five thousand people in America every year, and I could’ve been one of them.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Thousand, Asthma

• When I was in elementary school, we weren’t allowed to do sports other than cheerleading. By junior high, they let us play, but we had to come back after 6:30 p.m. to practice because there was only one gymnasium and the boys used it first.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Come, After

• Winning is great, but being able to finish my last Olympic Games on American soil was very important. Even though I was injured, I didn’t let my psyche get the best of me and cause me to doubt myself, so I was willing to pull every muscle in my body in ’96 in order to get the job done and I came away with the bronze medal.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Psyche, Soil

• I love track and field, but I also know the day will come when I will have to do something else.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Track, Field

• I set my sights on making an Olympic team, not realizing how tough it was going to be.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Olympic, Realizing

• I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 18 during my freshman year at UCLA. I refused to accept it – and I hid it from my coaches and teammates. But ignoring my problem didn’t make it go away.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Teammates, Asthma

• I’m more of a hands-on person. I like working with young people from the standpoint of providing support for the grassroots programs. State, national and Olympic champions begin at a grassroots level.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Grassroots, Olympic

• I’m not shy. I’m modest, but I’m very outgoing.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Modest, Shy

• It wasn’t until I was 14 and watched the 1976 Olympic games on television that I really started to dream about the big time. I remember seeing Evelyn Ashford in the 100 meters, and she was going to UCLA.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Watched, Seeing

• I do not take steroids. I never have. It’s sad to me that people want to point fingers. I don’t do that. That’s not me. I wouldn’t feel like a human being.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Sad

  Tags in Steroids, Fingers

• I don’t think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Athlete, Grace

• I don’t think there is a perfect athlete. But if I had to come close to picking someone who demonstrates all the traits that I feel an athlete should have, I would say the perfect athlete would be Tiger Woods. He has the ability, he’s humble and he’s very good at what he does.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Traits, Tiger

• I have this burning desire to get out there and do my best. It’s as if I’m keeping it all in a little bottle, and it’s all going to come out when I do the best I’m capable of doing.

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Capable, Desire

Jackie Joyner-Kersee (46)

Birth:	3rd March, 1962
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Athlete

About

Jacqueline "Jackie" Joyner-Kersee was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, USA. She is an American retired track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those two events at four different Olympic Games. She studied at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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