Florence Griffith Joyner
Florence Griffith Joyner
Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner, also known as Flo-Jo, was an American track and field athlete. She is considered the fastest woman of all time based on the fact that the world records she set in 1988 for both the 100 m and 200 m still stand and have yet to be seriously challenged. During the late 1980s she became a popular figure in international track and field because of her record-setting performances and flashy personal style. She died in her...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRunner
Date of Birth21 December 1959
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Injuries made me a believer in cross-training.
If you want to run as fast as the men, you've got to train like the men.
I have been running since I was 7. I was trying to restructure the way my body was made instead of trying to master the way I ran. I would get so frustrated with my starts in practices that I would just cry. When I ran, I wouldn't even try to get out of the blocks, I would just run.
You were born to run. Maybe not that fast, maybe not that far, maybe not as efficiently as others. But to get up and move, to fire up that entire energy-producing, oxygen-delivering, bone-strengthening process we call running.
A muscle is like a car. If you want it to run well early in the morning, you have to warm it up.
That's what I'd like to do on the President's Council. Make sports and athletics available to every youth in America, not just one day a week like it was for me, but every day.
When anyone tells me I can't do anything... I'm just not listening any more.
Conventional is not for me. I like things that are uniquely Flo. I like being different.
I don't do drugs. I never have taken any drugs. I don't believe in them.
I couldn't wait until I grew up. I used to look at my mom's stockings and put them on with her high heels and mess with my hair.
The main reason I wanted to be successful was to get out of the ghetto. My parents helped direct my path.
I love working with kids, talking with them and listening to them. I always encourage kids to reach beyond their dreams. Don't try to be like me. Be better than me.
I was always doing something physical. My brothers and I used to have handstand contests. We'd walk around the projects on our hands and see who could get the farthest. I was always playing football with them, basketball or racing in the street.
People want to think that staying in shape costs a lot of money. They couldn't be more wrong. It doesn't cost anything to walk. And it's probably a lot cheaper to go to the corner store and buy vegetables than take a family out for fast food.