Political Draft: 25 Athletes Who Need To Run For Office

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a retired track and field athlete. She started her athletic career at UCLA, where she was a star both as a runner and a basketball player. Joyner-Kersee graduated with a B.A. in history in 1986. From there she went on to win six Olympic medals, and she still holds the record for the World Heptathlon that she set in Seoul in 1988.

Joyner-Kersee is on the Sports Illustrated Master List of the 50 greatest sports figures of the 20th century. The short-lived Sports Illustrated for Women also named her the greatest female athlete of all time.

These days, Joyner-Kersee is an active philanthropist and advocate. Her issues include children’s education, health (like asthma, which she has), and racial and gender equality. Her most well-known causes are the Athletes for Hope and the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation. The JJK Foundation is based in her hometown of East St. Louis, with the goal of helping local kids in need, and starting programs all over America to do the same. They have programs in exercise and nutrition, dance, and pretty much all the sports. In addition JKKF helps seniors and student-athletes, and they run summer camps and after school programs that enrich the lives of people in East St. Louis.

In 2014, she spoke with Sport360° about working through adversity in her life and career

"I stayed strong because I didn’t mind being different. Sometimes different is popular and sometimes it isn’t. For me, I wasn’t afraid to speak up if someone, even if they were on my team and doing something wrong, that’s how I was. I also knew what I wanted to do."

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is exactly the kind of person we need to run for office.