Saturday, December 22, 2007

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962 in East St. Louis, Illinois) is a retired American athlete, ranked amongst the all-time greatest in heptathlon as well as the long jump. She won three gold, one silver and two bronze Olympic medals.

As of August 2007, Joyner-Kersee holds the world record in heptathlon along with six all time best results and her long jump record of 7.49 m is second on the long jump all time list. In addition to heptathlon and long jump, she was a world class athlete in 100 m hurdles and 200 meters being as of June 2006 in top 60 all time in those events.

Sports Illustrated voted her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century. Jackie Joyner-Kersee's heptathlon series could be viewed as achieved in an era where performance enhancing, and forbidden, drugs were very common. However Joyner-Kersee always has advocated staying drug-free. She consistently has maintained that she has competed throughout her career without performance-enhancing drugs.

Archivement
Olympic games
Los Angeles 1984 - 1 silver
Seoul 1988 - 2 gold
Barcelona 1992 - 1 gold, 1 bronze
Atlanta 1996 - 1 bronze

World Championships
Rome 1987 - 2 gold
Tokyo 1991 - 1 gold
Stuttgart - 1993 - 1 gold

Barry Bonds

Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964 in Riverside, California) is a Major League Baseball outfielder who is currently a free agent. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds, the godson of Hall of Famer Willie Mays, and a distant cousin of Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. He debuted in the Major Leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986 and joined the San Francisco Giants in 1993, where he stayed through 2007. Bonds filed for free agency following the 2007 World Series.

Bonds grew up in San Carlos, California and attended Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, California, California and excelled in baseball, basketball and football. As a freshman, he spent the baseball season on the JV team. The next three years—1980 to 1982—he starred on the varsity team. He batted .467 his senior year, and was honored as a prep All-American. The Giants drafted Bonds in the second round of the 1982 MLB draft as a high school senior, but the Giants and Bonds were unable to agree on contract terms, so Bonds instead decided to attend college.

Bonds attended Arizona State University, where he had a stellar baseball career, hitting .347 with 45 home runs and 175 RBI.In 1984 he batted .360 and stole 30 bases. In 1985 he hit 23 home runs with 66 RBIs and a .368 batting average. He was a Sporting News All-American selection that year. He tied the NCAA record with seven consecutive hits in the College World Series as sophomore and was named to All-Time College World Series Team in 1996.He graduated from Arizona State in 1986 with a degree in criminology.

Bonds currently holds the all-time Major League Baseball home run record with 762, and is also the all-time career leader in both walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688). He holds numerous other records, including the single-season Major League record for home runs (73), set in 2001, and a record seven Most Valuable Player awards.

Awards
* Most Valuable Player (NL): (1990, 1992–1993, 2001–2004)
* Gold Glove (NL): (1990–1994, 1996–1998)
* Silver Slugger (NL): (1990–1994, 1996–1997, 2000–2004)
* Hank Aaron Award (NL): (2001–2002, 2004)
* All-Star (NL): (1990, 1992–1998, 2000–2004, 2007)

Teams
* Pittsburgh Pirates (1986-1992)
* San Francisco Giants (1993-2007)