Jackie-Joyner Kersee stays active long after retirement

Colonie

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, selected by Sports Illustrated as the best female athlete of the 20th century, will visit Albany in late August as part of the Aurora Games at Times Union Center.

Just don't expect her to compete. After all, we're well into the 21st century now.

"Everyone wants to race me," said Joyner-Kersee, who won six medals over four Olympics in the heptathlon and long jump. "They want to see me jump 24 feet. I'm like, 'C'mon! Please!' That passed me by."

Track and field won't even be a part of the Aurora Games. Joyner-Kersee, 57, will fill the role as honorary captain for Team Americas at the all-women sports festival Aug. 20-25.

Retired from competition since 1998, Joyner-Kersee is far from sedentary these days. She and her husband/coach, Bob Kersee, run the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which inspires youths in her hometown of East St. Louis, Ill., to pursue athletics and academics.

"I do a lot of walking and do some running," said Joyner- Kersee, who is asthmatic. "I have a program I designed called 'Winning in Life.' It's a leadership and character-development curriculum, but movement is part of it — working with young people and being ready to move, and getting them active."

Many of the world's top female athletes, some of whom may have been inspired by the feats of Joyner-Kersee, will be in the Capital Region for the inaugural Aurora Games competition.

Joyner-Kersee said that athletes don't have to compete in the same sport to find common topics of conversation.

"We all train hard, and it's a constant reminder that you're as good as your last race," she said. "You still have to put in the work, and it's OK if I share my experiences, but we all are, or what we all have in common, should be that we're all coachable, that there's always an...