Athletics · 1988 · Seoul, South Korea
Flo-Jo's Untouchable Double
An American sprinter arrives in Seoul already the fastest woman ever timed, then leaves with a 200m world record nobody has come near in the decades since.
21.34s (world record)
200m final time
3 (100m, 200m, 4x100m)
Golds at Seoul
10.49s (US Trials, 1988)
100m world record
Weeks before the Games, at the US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Florence Griffith Joyner ran a wind-legal 10.49 seconds for 100m, which instantly became the world record and remains it. She reached Seoul as the biggest star in the sport, as recognisable for the flowing hair, the painted nails and the one-legged running suits as for the speed.
She won the 100m final in 10.54 seconds, then went quicker again over 200m, breaking her own new world record in the semi-final before running 21.34 seconds in the final on 29 September 1988. More than three and a half decades later that time is still the outright world record. She added a third gold in the 4x100m relay and a silver in the 4x400m.
Griffith Joyner retired from athletics the following year, at the peak of her powers, with persistent doping speculation trailing her that no positive test ever substantiated. The times have outlasted the argument, and every sprinter since has run at them without arriving.
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