Flojo Never Shook Drug Rumors -- Questions Still Persist Even After Her Death

Jackie Joyner-Kersee recently said her career's lowest moment came during the 1988 Seoul Olympics when she and her sister-in-law, Florence Griffith Joyner, were accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Brazilian half-miler Joaquim Cruz leveled the allegations after she won the heptathlon gold with a world-record score, saying publicly what many in track and field had whispered.

"I hope no other person achieves a great thing and has to deal with innuendo and accusations," Joyner-Kersee said.

While rumors faded for her, they never really ended for Griffith Joyner, not even after her death yesterday at her home in Mission Viejo, Calif. She was 38.

The woman who transformed track and field for women with world records in the 100 meters and 200 meters continually had to defend herself from drug allegations because of one remarkable year.

"Her success ushered in an age of cynicism in track and field where people could not accept performances for what they were and were always looking for another explanation," said Craig Masback, USA Track and Field executive director.

Masback said Griffith Joyner suffered from the Ben Johnson drug scandal at Seoul. After winning the men's 100 meters in world-record time, Johnson, of Canada, tested positive for a muscle-building steroid and was banned from competition for life. Coincidentally, his final appeal to compete again was denied yesterday.

The Johnson episode resulted in Canadian hearings on drug use in Olympic sports, casting suspicion on many athletes, including Griffith Joyner.

"We all are (prejudging)," said Evelyn Ashford, winner of four Olympic gold medals and a silver, and a two-time world-record holder at 100 meters. "If she did something maybe now is the time for it to come out to help the next generation."

Suspicions that performance-enhancing drugs played a role in her death are premature, according to steroid experts and cardiologists.

Griffith Joyner, a triple gold medalist at Seoul, died in her sleep early yesterday morning of an apparent heart-related problem, according to family members.

An Orange County coroner's official said the cause of death is unknown. Medical examiners did an autopsy, but results could take up to two weeks, authorities said. Without more information, experts said it is all but impossible to guess what might have happened.

"FloJo," as Griffith Joyner was known to her fans, suffered a seizure two years ago while flying to St. Louis from California. Greg Foster, three-time 110-meter hurdles world champion and a close friend of the Joyners, said the family believes the episode is related to her death. At the time, the Joyners asked that no details be released about the seizure other than the fact she spent one day in a St. Louis hospital.

While many celebrated her career of super-fast times and attention-getting fashions, few could forget the 1989 controversy after a German magazine reported drug allegations by Darrell Robinson, a 400-meter runner from Tacoma. Robinson, a state champion at Wilson High School, said Griffith Joyner asked him to buy growth hormones for her and paid him $2,000 in $100 bills. The human growth hormone can promote muscle mass and is undetectable.

Griffith Joyner called Robinson "a compulsive, crazy, lying lunatic" on national television. "I don't do drugs," she said. "I never have taken any drugs. I don't believe in them."

She was tested numerous times but never turned up with a positive sample.

Experts don't know enough about the long-term effects of steroids or many other performance-enhancing drugs to speculate on what it could do to a person's heart. While scientists have seen a few cases linking steroid use to the weakening of the heart muscle, they have no direct evidence of a connection.

Alcohol, cocaine and viruses are well-known causes of heart disease, said Gary Ferenchick, a Michigan State physician who has studied steroids and heart problems. "A lot of things can attack the muscle and lead to a weakening," he said.

The track and field community yesterday focused on how FloJo transformed her sport.

Jeannette Bolden, the UCLA women's track coach and FloJo's college roommate, remembered competing against Griffith Joyner at a high school meet in Los Angeles. She didn't get the sense the lanky sprinter would someday rule women's track and field. Instead, Bolden said, "I noticed her white tights and hair slicked back."

One of 11 children, FloJo was teased unmercifully in her south central Los Angeles neighborhood for being different. But those differences benefited her when she became one of the greatest female track athletes of a generation - a woman whose stunning world-record runs were all the more noticeable because of her colorful, often risque, skintight uniforms and 6 1/2-inch, multicolored nails.

"She changed the way a lot of people perceived the women's 100 meters," Ashford said. "She had a flash and flair."

Transcending her moribund sport, FloJo was beloved for her personality as much as her willful running.

Although a strong competitor for much of the 1980s, Griffith Joyner seemed to burst on the scene in 1988 where she won four Olympic medals - winning the 100 and 200, and anchoring the 400 and 1,600 relays. Her world records of 10.49 seconds in the 100 and 21.34 in the 200 stand today as a monument to a remarkable season.

"Very few people are able to transcend the sport, so that was a big positive," said Carl Lewis, one of history's greatest track Olympians. "She was tremendous in (1988). People are still trying to catch the records she set more than 10 years ago, so it's an amazing legacy."

Unlike some of America's great track athletes, FloJo left the sport after her great success. "She thought she had done enough," said Foster, who trained with the Joyners. "She was happy with what she had accomplished."

Besides the four-medal performance in Seoul, Griffith Joyner won silver medals in the 1984 Olympics and the 1983 and '87 World Championships - all in the 200 meters.

Foster saw her blossom at UCLA, where she became the 1982 NCAA champion in the 200.

"I was able to see what she can and cannot do," Foster said. "What I saw, she could have done anything she wanted."

But FloJo, coached by Bob Kersee, Jackie Joyner-Kersee's husband, floundered after 1984. By 1986, she was working in a bank, 15 pounds over her competitive weight.

After a divisive split with Kersee, FloJo was coached by her husband, Al Joyner, 1984 gold medalist in the triple jump.

In 1991, the couple had their only child, Mary. While she tried to make a comeback in Atlanta two years ago, her real strides were made writing children's books and being co-chair of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. -------------------------------

Full Name: Delorez Florence Griffith.

Born: Dec. 21, 1959, Los Angeles.

Died: Sept. 21, 1998, Mission Viejo, Calif.

Education: David Starr Jordan H.S., Los Angeles, 1978; UCLA, 1983, degree in psychology (attended Cal State Northridge for two years before UCLA)

Awards: AP Female Athlete of the Year, 1988; USOC Sportswoman of the Year, 1988; Sullivan Award (top amateur athlete), 1988.

World Records: 100 meters, 10.49, 1988 Olympic Trials quarterfinal; 200 meters, 21.34, 1988 Olympics final (both records current).

Olympic Medals: Los Angeles 1984, silver, 200 meters (22.04); Seoul 1988, gold, 100 meters (10.54 wind-aided); gold, 200 meters (21.34); gold, 400-meter relay (41.98), silver, 1,600-meter relay (3:15.51).

Fastest 100s

Griffith Joyner 10.49, Marion Jones 10.71, Merlene Ottey 10.74, Evelyn Ashford 10.76, Irina Privalova 10.77, Dawn Sowell 10.78, Marlies Gohr 10.81, Gail Devers 10.82, Torrence 10.82, Marita Koch 10.83, Sheila Echols 10.83, Juliet Cuthbert 10.83.

"I remember her from '88, just taking the world by storm and surprising all of us. In '88 . . . she was the one we all had to beat." - Olympian Evelyn Ashford

"Sadly, her life has passed as rapidly as her races." - Primo Nebiolo, International Amateur Athletic Federation, track's governing body

"Flo-Jo was one of the most special athletes we have ever seen, for her speed, her grace, her beauty."

U.S. track and field's Tom Serber

"She worked very hard. She was relentless, she never stopped. Besides being beautiful, she had a work ethic bar none. The beauty of her was that she never changed. She was the same FloJo before and she was the same FloJo after." John Smith, noted sprint coach