A star athlete at Lincoln High School in East St. Louis, Illinois, Joyner went on to attend Arkansas State University. He competed with their track and field team throughout his college career and, by the time he graduated, Joyner was a three-time NCAA All-American indoor champion, a three-time NCAA All-American and outdoor champion, a four-time Southland Conference champ and had placed 8th in the triple jump at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
In 1984 Joyner traveled to Los Angeles for the Summer Games to compete with the U.S. Olympic track and field team. With a leap of 56 feet 7.5 inches, he became the first African American in 80 years to win a gold medal in the triple jump. He was honored with the Jim Thorpe Award, which is given every four years to the best American competitor in an Olympic Field Event. That same year, he cheered his sister Jackie Joyner Kersee as she competed in the heptathlon. When she captured a silver in the event, they became the first sibling teammates in U.S. history to win medals during the same Olympics.
On October 10, 1987, Joyner married track athlete Florence Griffith, later known as Flo–Jo. The two met in 1980 at the Olympic trials registration. He later became his wife's coach. Griffith Joyner won three gold medals at the 1988 Olympic Games. Their daughter, Mary Ruth, was born in 1990. Griffith-Joyner died from an epileptic seizure at the age of 38 in 1998. After his wife's death, Joyner began traveling to promote her newly published book, Running for Dummies, and jump-start the Florence Griffith Joyner charity/scholarship fund. He also began directing the Flo Jo Community Empowerment Foundation, an organization dedicated to making dreams come true for the youth around the world. One dollar from every sale of Running for Dummies is donated to this foundation.

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