Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a legnendary , retired track and field athlete. As a high school athlete at East St. Louis Lincoln Senior High School, she qualified for the finals in the long jump at the 1980 Olympic Trials, finishing 8th behind another high schooler, Carol Lewis.

Joyner-Kersee attended college at the University of California at Los Angeles, where she starred in both track & field and in women's basketball from 1980–1985. She won the Broderick Award, (now the Honda Sports Award) as the nation's best female collegiate track and field competitor in 1983 and in 1985. Joyner-Kersee is ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon and long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those two events at four different Olympic Games. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time. Joyner-Kersee is one of the most famous athletes to have overcome severe asthma. As of 2021, she is on the Board of Directors for USA Track & Field (U.S.A.T.F.), the national governing body of the sport.

Joyner-Kersee is an active philanthropist in children's education, racial equality and women's rights. She is a founder of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which encourages young people in East St. Louis to pursue athletics and academics.