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Florence
Griffith Joyner shattering the women's 100m world record at
the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials was honored by USA Track &
Field as the 10th greatest
moment in
U.S. track and field history in the last 25 years.
Griffith-Joyner dominated the competition in the women's 100 meters
throughout the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. In
the opening round she ran the fastest time in history under
any conditions with her wind-aided finish in 10.60 seconds,
setting the stage for the quarterfinals.
Griffith-Joyner showed up for the next round wearing a purple outfit
with the left leg cut away. As stunning as her appearance
was at that moment, it was no comparison to her performance
on the track that followed.
In her
quarterfinal, Flo-Jo ran away from the field in the new "Beamonesque"
world record time of 10.49 seconds, shattering the previous
standard of 10.76 seconds set in 1984 by Evelyn Ashford. The
wind reading for that race was 0.0 meters per second on a
day when wind readings regularly exceeded 4.0 mps. The
record still stands.
Later that
summer at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Griffith-Joyner
won the gold medal in the100 meters before posting the
current world record of 21.34 seconds in winning the 200
meters. She added another gold medal in Seoul by running the
third leg on the victorious U.S. 4x100m relay team before
running the anchor leg on Team USA's silver medal winning
4x400m relay squad.
Griffith-Joyner, who died in her sleep on September 21, 1998
at her home in California, was inducted into the National
Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1995.
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