To be Al Joyner on Saturday afternoon was to experience a lifetime of emotions in two hours. During that brief timespan, his wife and sister had set world records in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, and he had finished fifth in the triple jump.
What Joyner felt was evident in his pliable face. It produced enough different mug shots to fill a family album with pictures of joy and sorrow, of fear and confidence, of love and pride and wonder and strength.
The only thing he didn`t do was cry. His sister, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, did that for him, breaking down in the middle of her press conference when she heard the names of the three Olympic qualifiers in the triple jump announced over the public address system.
Not 50 feet away at that moment, Al was smiling and telling reporters that she knew he would be all right.
”I know how much he is hurting,” she said.
At 2:30 p.m., Al Joyner, a native of East St. Louis living in Van Nuys, Calif., was still defending Olympic champion in the triple jump. At 4:30 p.m., he had failed to make the 1988 U.S. team.
In the time between, his wife, Florence Griffith-Joyner, had set an unbelievable world record in the 100 meters, and his sister had set a believable but still brilliant world record in the heptathlon.
”I`ve got a gold medal, and my sister and wife have got silver medals
(from 1984),” Joyner said. ”I hope they get the gold medals. Even after you train so hard, you`ve got to be ready for anything.”
No one, least of all her coach and brother-in-law, Bob Kersee, could have expected what Griffith-Joyner did in the second round of the 100 meters. Her time of 10.49 seconds broke Evelyn Ashford`s four-year-old world record by .27 of a second. It was also .4 better than Griffith-Joyner`s previous best.
In the 75 years that records have been codified by the International Track Federation (IAAF), the women`s world record in the 100 had never been improved by more than a tenth of a second at a time. In the 11 years records have been timed automatically, it had improved just .12 of a second before Griffith-Joyner`s run.
”No one could envision a 10.49 for a woman in the 100,” Kersee said.
”I`m still shocked about it, because I hadn`t told her to run fast yet.”
Griffith-Joyner, 28, still has two more rounds of the 100 meters Sunday. She must still finish among the top three in the final to make the Olympic team in the event.
”I`m not worrying about the world record until tomorrow,” she had said after running a wind-aided 10.60 in the first-round heat Saturday morning. A following wind of more than 4.4 miles an hour invalidates world records.
There was considerable debate as to whether the record was also wind-aided, even though the Omega wind gauge read 0.0.
During the entire triple-jump final, only 3 of the 47 measured attempts were taken with a legal wind, and all had some wind. For the two jumps that took place immediately before and after Griffith-Joyner`s record run, the wind readings were 9.62 m.p.h. and 6.48 m.p.h.
But the reading for the 100-meter heat after Griffith-Joyner`s was also 0.0. In that race, winner Sheila Echols improved her personal best by .18 with a 10.83.
”As far as we`re concerned, we`re sticking with the reading,” said Omega representative Mike Gibbons. ”I tested the machine afterward and couldn`t find anything contradictory.”
The wind gauge measures the average speed over 10 seconds. Crosswinds and swirling winds can produce calm readings, but that was not the case most of Saturday.
”What can we do but accept it?” said Bob Hersh, chairman of the U.S. records committee. ”I think we just have to look at how well Bob Kersee gets his athletes ready for big competitions.”
Kersee`s wife once again proved that. Despite temperatures that reached 103 degrees Friday and 98 Saturday, Joyner-Kersee improved her two-year-old heptathlon record by 57 points to 7,215.
It was her third world heptathlon record since 1986. No one else has ever reached 7,000 points.
She had been on track for 7,300 points after the first day`s four events, and she could still have made it with an all-out effort in the final event, the 800 meters. In such brutal weather and with the Olympics yet to come, Kersee advised her to hold back.
”I believe God slowed me down for some reason today, because He would like to see me do something outstanding in Seoul (at the Olympics),” she said.
Joyner-Kersee began Saturday with a long jump of only 22 feet 11 3/4 inches. That came on the last of three jumps, after a foul had wiped out a first jump that seemed closer to her American record of 24-5 1/2.
Her javelin throw, 164 feet 4 inches, was just an inch shy of her personal best.
That sent her into the 800 meters needing a time of 2:24.95 to break the world record and 2:14.59 to reach 7,300. Her personal best for the event in the heptathlon is 2:09.69.
”Bobby told me to run 2:19 or 2:20 to keep the record down,” she said after running a 2:20.70.
Joyner-Kersee, 26, of East St. Louis and Long Beach, could have reached 7,350 if she had pushed everything at this meet, her husband said. She nevertheless set American heptathlon records in two events, the high jump and hurdles, and a world heptathlon record in a third, the 200 meters.
Her 200-meter time of 22.30 was so good it was not even listed in the tables used to translate heptathlon performances to points.
”She took the 200 meters off the scoring tables, and I think she can take the whole heptathlon off the scoring tables,” he said.
She was a stunning 989 points ahead of runner-up Cindy Greiner of Eugene, Ore. But there was a tense battle for the third spot between two-time Olympian Jane Frederick and Wendy Brown, who had not been born when Frederick entered her first multi-events competition 23 years ago.
Frederick, 36, needed to beat Brown, 22, by one second in the 800 meters to win the final spot. Despite a badly injured hamstring, Frederick clung to a slim lead until the final 150 meters before losing to Brown by 1.32 seconds.
”That was the best I could do today,” said Frederick, who also failed to make the 1980 and 1984 Olympic teams because of injuries.
”I`m in shell shock,” she said. ”Jane Frederick has got some kind of crazy history. I just have to accept this is where I fit.”
At 35, Frederick had won her first medal in a major international competition, a bronze in the 1987 World Championships. Before hurting the leg at the U.S. nationals last month, she was favored to finish second in this meet.
”Excuse me for not living up to my potential,” Frederick said.
No apologies were needed, just as none were needed from Al Joyner. He already was looking forward to an attempt at making the Olympic team in the high hurdles, a longshot at best.
He could go to Seoul for free as either a brother or husband as part of the Seagram`s Send the Families program.
”I still want to go as an athlete,” he said.
