Jackie Joyner broke records at 1986’s U.S. Olympic Festival in Houston.
This Aug. 3, 1986 story, reprinted below as it appeared then, was part of the Chronicle’s coverage of the U.S. Olympic Festival.
NOTE: The event was held in venues throughout the Houston area July 25-Aug. 3, 1986. Some 3,000 athletes competed in 34 sports including archery, baseball, canoe, cycling, track and field, diving, gymnastics, figure skating, fencing, hand ball, swimming, tennis and water polo. The Los Angeles Times described the festival, held in off-Olympic years, as “an event dedicated to developing United States athletes.” The last one was held in Denver in 1995.
Now Jackie Joyner is using the women’s heptathlon as her own personal punching bag.
Joyner became the shining centerpiece of the U.S. Olympic Festival Saturday night when she shattered the world record in the heptathlon for the second time in 27 days.
With a generously estimated crowd of 16,500 — the largest ever for a single Festival event — at Robertson Stadium on its feet urging her on, Joyner kicked down the stretch in the 800 meters to finish in 2:09.69 to top off her total at 7,161 points, bettering her previous world mark of 7,148 set July 6 and 7 at the Goodwill Games in Moscow.
“That last 300 meters was for the American fans,” said Bob Kersee, Joyner’s husband and coach. “She said after Moscow that she wanted to come back and break the record again in the United States.
That’s why I think tonight means even more to her.”
“At the 500-meter mark, Jolanda Jones passed me and gave me a look of inspiration,” said Joyner. “I concentrated on just looking down at the track and keeping my form to come down to the finish line.
“This was harder than Moscow because it was in the U.S. and it meant a lot to me to come back home and do it in front of the American fans.”
It also had to be more difficult than Moscow due to the oppressive heat.
The temperature was down slightly and a light breeze was blowing, but the humidity was up, turning the heptathlon stage from
Friday’s oven into Saturday’s sauna.
Yet it was Joyner who was hottest again, smothering the rest of the field and once again stretching the boundaries of imagination in terms of just how far she can go.
Meanwhile the biggest surprise of the night occurred when the South team in the men’s 4 x 100 relay was disqualified after a strong anchor leg by Carl Lewis gave them the gold medal.
In fact, the team of Floyd Heard, Wallace Spearman, Kirk Baptiste and Lewis was on the victory stand accepting their gold medals when first word of the disqualification filtered into the press box.
The South was disqualified because Heard, the Texas A&M freshman, stepped out of his lane on the opening leg.
Earl Bell won the pole vault with a meet record 19-0 3/4 after missing on all three attempts at setting a new American record of 19-4 ¾.
But there was no such denying Joyner, who did not just beat the competition, but devoured it, winning all seven events and leaving second-place finisher Cindy Greiner (6,137) behind by a whopping 924 points.
En route to the record, the 24-year-old Joyner established four new personal bests and tied another.
In addition, Joyner set two individual-event world records in the 200 meters (22.85) and long jump (23-0 ¾).
Joyner, who is the only woman to break the 7,000-point barrier, set still another mark, becoming the first woman ever to score over 3,000 points on the second day. She had 3,013.
It was the long jump that got Joyner started. She had finished the first day of competition with 4,148, three points behind her recordsetting pace in Moscow.
Her first jump on Saturday was a very respectable 21-7 ½, but not up to the standards that Joyner had set.
But she hit her second jump perfectly. So close, in fact, that it took several seconds for the official to determine that she hadn’t fouled.
Joyner sailed through the pit and landed at the 23-0 ¾ mark, for another individual world record.
“A lot of times I come close to fouling and when I saw him (official) reach for the white flag (signifying a legal jump) I felt like that really got me started,” Joyner said. Indeed, it did. Joyner went on set another personal best and meet record in the javelin with a throw of 164-4.
That sent her into the 800 needing a time of 2:10.62 to tie the world record and 2:10.55 to break it.
“I had doubts that I would make it coming around the quarter in the 800,” Joyner said. “But all the time I was running, I kept remember what Bobby says in the morning when I’m doing my road work.
“‘Go to your arms, start pumping.’ As soon as I did, then I started to relax.”
And that’s when the world record, just like Joe Louis’ Bums of the Month, didn’t stand a chance.
Based on their performance, it would seem that disqualification is the only chance anyone stands of beating the South team in the 4 x 100 relay.
Despite a very shaky 2-3 handoff from Spearman to Baptiste, Lewis used sheer strength and speed to pull out the apparent win in 38.52.
Lewis was a full 3 meters behind the East’s Mike Morris when he took the baton on the anchor leg. But that didn’t faze the four-time gold medalist, who simply turned on the jets. Lewis caught Morris with 20 meters left and won going away.
The South team was still unaware of the disqualification when they left the track with their gold medals that rightfully belonged to Lee McRae, Jack Pierce, Tony Dees and Morris of the East.
Lewis, who had his sore left knee wrapped in an ice pack, said he still is planning to compete in the long jump today.
It’s sore, but I’ll rest it and see how it feels,” Lewis said. I would say there is a 1 percent chance I won’t compete in the long jump.
Unless I can’t walk, I’ll jump.”
The West team of Alice Brown, Pam Marshall, Diane Williams and Evelyn Ashford won the women’s 4 x 100 relay, but was dissatisfied with the time of 42.49.
Tom Petranoff, the world record holder in the “new” javelin, captured his event with a throw of 264-8.
The triple jump was won by Mike Conley with a meet record 57-5.
James Robinson nipped Stanley Redwine in a time of 1:46.73 to take the men’s 800 meters, while Joetta Clark set a stadium record in the women’s 800 with a 2:00.65 clocking.
American record holder Carol Cady took the gold medal in the discus with a toss of 191-1, well below her best.
The closest race of the night was the men’s 400 meters, in which Ray Armstead caught Danny Everett in the final 20 meters and won by one-hundredth of a second in 45.25.
The women’s 400 went to Lillie Leatherwood in 51.31.
The women’s 10,000 meters went to Stephanie Herbst in 34:23.16.
At the midway point in the decathlon, Dave Johnson leads Rob Muzzio 4,129-4,099. Muzzio set an Olympic Festival record in the shot put with a heave of 54-6, breaking the old mark by five feet.
But while Johnson did not win a single event on the first day, his consistency and a pair of second-place finishes in the long jump and 400 meters gave him the overall lead.