| | Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the 1988 Olympic
long jump champion who retired in 1998, has entered next month's U.S. Olympic trials.
Entering does not necessarily mean that the 38-year-old
Joyner-Kersee will compete in the July 14-23 trials. She must
declare her intention to compete before the start of the meet.
"I'd say there's a 75 percent possibility that she'll
compete," said Greg Foster, Joyner-Kersee's agent. "She is
training and she's in shape. The important thing is that she wants
to be competitive in the Olympic Games. She's not doing this to make
the team."
Joyner-Kersee, voted the greatest female athlete of the 1900s in
an Associated Press poll, has not competed since retiring, but she
is eligible for the trials under a clause that allows former gold
medalists to participate.
Joyner-Kersee, who also has two Olympic gold medals in the
heptathlon, in 1988 and 1992, and is the world record-holder in
that event, finished third in the long jump at the 1996 Atlanta
Games.
She still is the American record-holder in the long jump at 24
feet, 7 inches.
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