On the eve of the 2024 Paris Olympics, a legend of the Games was in Philly to help inspire local businesses.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee — who won three Olympic gold, one silver and three bronze medals during her illustrious career — joined members of BCA Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center to regale them with tales of her upbringing, as well as the adversities she faced and overcame to reach the pinnacle of track and field.
Joyner-Kersee competed in the long jump and the heptathlon — an event where athletes compete in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meters, long jump, javelin throw and 800 meters and the best combined score wins — from 1984 to 2000. Her gold-winning heptathlon performance at the 1988 Seoul Olympics remains the world record, and she still holds the U.S. women’s record in the long jump. At UCLA, she was a star both on the track and on the Bruins basketball team.
But that success didn’t come instantly for her when she first competed as a child in East St. Louis, Ill.
“My first competition, I finished last,” Joyner-Kersee recalled. “And I say to myself, ‘If I can improve a tenth of a second if I was running, or a half of an inch if I was jumping, that meant the work that we were doing had paid off.’ ”
Joyner-Kersee described more of the figurative hurdles she faced during her career and in her life: Discovering that her chronic trouble breathing was actually exercise-induced asthma, making the tough decision to take her mother off life support after she contracted a severe form of meningitis, and overcoming the disappointment of going into the 1984 Games in Los Angeles injured and falling just short of gold in the heptathlon.
“In life, things happen. It’s how we adapt, and sometimes how we adjust,” Joyner-Kersee said. “Sometimes it gets the best of us, mentally as well as physically. But we have the power to change the course of the direction we want to go in life.”
Joyner-Kersee also talked about how she never forgot about the community she came from and how she made good on her promise to reopen the East St. Louis community center she grew up in through the philanthropic foundation she later established.
BCA is a relationship marketing organization aiming to inspire businesses to build truly genuine relationships. Joleen Jaworski, president of BCA, built the organization based on the business principles and values of her father, Eagles’ Hall of Fame quarterback Ron Jaworski, who emceed the event.
Previous speakers for BCA’s series have included former Eagles player and NFL coach Herm Edwards, former Eagles linebacker and analyst Emmanuel Acho and former Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright.
“No matter if it’s an athlete, an author or a politician, our speakers translate into business leadership messages,” Joleen Jaworski said.
