1992: Jackie Joyner-Kersee Wins Gold…Again

Jackie Joyner-Kersee grew up in East St. Louis, fighting off poverty and asthma by winning a scholarship to UCLA where she was a standout on the basketball and track teams. She attended her first Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984 but missed the gold medal in the heptathlon by just five points. A sore hamstring was to blame. In 1988, she competed in the Seoul Olympics where she won the gold medal and on this day in 1992, she became the first woman ever to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon. In 1996 she tried it one more time but had to withdraw due to a hamstring injury.