A coroner is attempting to determine the cause of death. The Olympic sprint champion Florence Griffith Joyner died of suffocation a month ago after suffering a seizure while she slept, medical authorities said yesterday in southern California. In the 100-meter final, she ran a 10.54, beating her nearest rival to the world record, Evelyn Ashford, by 0.30 seconds. Previously, her family said that she had suffered a seizure while on a flight two years ago, and had been hospitalized overnight, but that no cause of the incident had been determined. He recalled: "I had a girlfriend back in Arkansas who said, 'Why do you have a picture of this girl?' Doctors did not release any information from Griffith Joyner's medical files and declined to say whether she was aware that she had a blood vessel abnormality or whether she had suffered previous seizures. Florence started her journey in track and field when she was in elementary school. Irish swimmer Michelle Smith de Bruin, a triple gold medallist at the Atlanta Olympics, was banned from international meets for four years. In the 200 meter semifinal, she set the world record of 21.56 seconds and then broke this record by 0.22 seconds in winning the final with a time of 21.34 seconds. "A 38-year-old woman dropping dead is unusual," said Anne Summers, a cardiologist at the Inova Fairfax Hospital. "She's been an inspiration for a lot of young women and men also," said 400-meter hurdler Sandra Farmer Patrick, whose 4-year-old daughter was Griffith Joyner's godchild. Double Olympic 200 meter gold medalist Veronica Campbell Brown got nowhere near it, saying it was beyond her reach. Died: September 21, 1998 (aged 38) California Awards And Honors: Olympic Games See all related content Joyner's autopsy records, obtained by Salon under the California Public Records Act, reveal the inner workings of an anxious sheriff-coroner's office under scrutiny in a high-profile and puzzling celebrity death. The cause of death was not immediately known, but Foster said a heart related problem was suspected. [2][5] The family lived in Littlerock, California, before Florence Griffith moved with her children to the Jordan Downs public housing complex located in the Watts section of Los Angeles. As far as the toxicology report is concerned, Joyner had only acetaminophen, commonly known by the brand name Tylenol,in her system, and an allergy medication called Benadryl, according to The Washington Post. SPRINTER GRIFFITH JOYNER, 38, DIES IN HER SLEEP - The Washington Post By Amy Shipley September 22, 1998 Florence Griffith Joyner, the fastest woman sprinter in track and field history who won. The autopsy report showed that Joyner suffered from "mild cardiac hypertrophy" and "occasional interstitial fibrosis" of the heart muscle, which "could be from the use of one or more of testosterone, anabolic steroids" or growth hormones, Di Pasquale told Salon. Report for the International Amateur Athletic Federation Department of Physics, University of Western Australia, President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, California State University at Northridge, Association of Track and Field Statisticians, History of African Americans in Los Angeles, "Flashy Florence Griffith Joyner Will Be the One to Watchand Clockin the Women's Sprints", "School Renamed for Late Track Star Griffith Joyner", "The mother behind the Olympian reveals the spirit that was Flo Jo", "ESPN Classic - FloJo sets 100 record at 1988 Olympic Trials", "California State Meet Results 1915 to present", "Griffith-Joyner Leaves Kersee's Club; Times", "Brown, Howard Reach Semifinals in Sprint Events", The History of the United States Olympic Trials Track & Field, "IAAF: 200 Metres Result | 1st IAAF World Championships in Athletics | iaaf.org", "Florence Griffith Joyner, 38, Champion Sprinter, Is Dead", "IAAF Grand Prix, Combined Events Challenge and Golden Events", "Track / Mal Florence: Pursley's Mishap Points Out How Dangerous Pole Vaulting Is", "Athletics: Flo-Jo's flamboyant life and times", "50 stunning Olympic moments No22: Florence Griffith Joyner, Seoul 1988", "Griffith-Joyner Ranked 2nd in World for 200 Meters", "Griffith-Joyner Leaves Kersee's Club; She'll Be Coached Solely by Husband", "Canada's Johnson rips season's fastest 100", "From the Archives: Track Olympian Florence Griffith Joyner Dies at 38", "Kingdom, 13.17 Into Wind, Routs Foster: Joyner-Kersee Jumps 24-3, Griffith Joyner Runs 10.89 in San Diego", "Griffith-joyner Nails 100-meter Dash Final", "The History of the United States Olympic Trials -- Track and Field", "Elaine Thompson-Herah narrowly misses out on breaking 33-year-old 100m record", "Kersee Still Waiting For Reason Griffith Joyner Dropped Him As", "The Seoul Olympics: Track and Field; Pride and Frustration for the Americans", "Cash Flo Griffith Joyner Leads The Pack In Cashing In On The Olympics", "Sports People: Track and Field; Griffith Joyner Gets Sullivan Award", "Flo Jo Hopes the Training Pays Off for Her Role on 'Santa Barbara', "Griffith-Joyner Just Getting Out of the Blocks: She Says Weight Training, Faster Starts Pushed Her to World Record in 100", "Tribute: Florence Griffith Joyner Flo-Jo (1959 - 1998)", "Speed, glamour, doubt will be Flo-Jo's legacy", "Athletics: Downfall of a man quick to accuse", "The Uneasy Death Of Florence Griffith Joyner", "Plus: Track and Field; Official Defends Griffith Joyner", "Olympics '88: A Preview: The First Family: Joyner and Kersee Got a Jump in Their Personal Relationship", "Seizure was brought on by a congenital defect in Griffith Joyner's brain", "(22) Florence Joyner Olympiad Park - City of Mission Viejo", "Art of the Olympians | Florence Griffith-Joyner", "The 100-m World Record by Florence Griffith-Joyner at the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials", Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year, Olympic champions in women's 4 100 metres relay, 1984 United States Olympic trials (track and field), 1988 United States Olympic trials (track and field), Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, United States women's national soccer team, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Florence_Griffith_Joyner&oldid=1163226466, African-American female track and field athletes, Track and field athletes from Los Angeles, Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics, Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics, Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field, Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field, California State University, Northridge alumni, UCLA Bruins women's track and field athletes, Neurological disease deaths in California, Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners, 20th-century African-American sportspeople, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 3 July 2023, at 17:09. How Did Florence Griffith Joyner (FloJo) Die? - EssentiallySports Flo-Jo left Seoul with four medals, including a gold and a silver in relays, reports The Guardian. In 1989, another sprinter, Darrell Robinson, told the German magazine Stern that Joyner had paid him to get her some human growth hormone a year earlier. Joyner then appeared on the "Today" show with Robinson and blasted him as a "compulsive, crazy, lying lunatic." "A variety of cardiovascular diseases have been known to cause sudden death," said Barry Maron, the director of cardiovascular research at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. [10] She married Al Joyner, the Olympic triple jump champion of 1984, in 1987. Florence Griffith Joyner died in her sleep. The USOC and International Olympic Committee flags also were lowered and will be flown at half-staff until she is laid to rest. Four days later, on Sept. 25, homicide investigators learned from "a family attorney" that Joyner had a grand mal seizure in 1990. And in a follow-up letter to Salon, Rivera said, "The Sheriff-Coroner did not request or impanel the Grand Jury or District Attorney for purposes of presenting a criminal matter to them seeking an indictment in the Florence Joyner case." American sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, shortened among fans to just Flo-Jo, was a celebrated athlete in her time. Toxicology tests showed that Griffith Joyner, 38, had taken a tablet of the painkiller Tylenol and the antihistamine Benadryl, but tests for evidence of alcohol, recreational drugs and performance-enhancing drugs were negative, authorities said at a news conference in Santa Ana, Calif. Fukumoto said he did not find any abnormality of Griffith Joyner's heart during an autopsy, saying she had a ''normal athlete's heart'' that was in ''good form.'' He then watched television for a while and went to bed himself, and found her apparently dead some time after 6:30. Joyner's shocking retirement immediately after the 1988 Olympics, to begin a clothing design and children's book business at the height of her athletic achievement, only encouraged the rumors. "Although both can be caused by other factors, these findings help strengthen the sense that Flo-Jo used these compounds when she was competing and more recently." After a year, she finished top of the 400-meter in the same event. [35][36] She left UCLA for UC Irvine with her husband serving as full-time coach.[25]. There was another call from a woman suggesting Joyner had died of Lyme disease. By now known to the world as "Flo-Jo", Griffith Joyner was the big favorite for the titles in the sprint events at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Florence Griffith-Joyner posed for a portrait on April 5, 1988 in Los Angeles, California. Joyner also told the deputies about his wife's history of seizures and "zoning out," though at that point there is no mention in the notes that she suffered from epilepsy. "[47], Griffith's nickname among family was "Dee Dee". Marion Jones, with a 21.62 at the World Cup in South Africa earlier this month, is the only other woman to run the 200 in under 21.70. With her retirement from running in February 1989 and untimely death in 1998, the subject became moot, at least in terms of proof or . [10][39][40] The month after announcing her retirement, she was selected as the winner of the James E. Sullivan Award of 1988 as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Now Florence Griffith Joyner is gone, dead at the age of 38, and there is little else to say. At the same Olympics, Griffith Joyner also ran with the 4 100 m relay and the 4 400 m relay teams. The report from the autopsy conducted after Joyner died helps answer not only what. The mother of Olympic sprint champion Florence Griffith Joyner filed a wrongful death lawsuit this week against her son-in-law, Al Joyner, in what she said is part of an escalating family. So the suspicion has always been that the performance was wind-aided. Citing lucrative promotional opportunities in Japan and a desire to start a family, Griffith-Joyner retired from track and field in February 1989. The Orange County Coroner's Office could not determine whether Joyner had ever used steroids or other drugs, says Chief Deputy Coroner Berndt, although tissue and organ tests revealed none of the changes associated with recent steroid use. Grieving is a long process and Mr. Joyner appreciates the privacy he's been afforded so he can work this through," Meyer told Salon. Nancy is GiveMeSport Womens Content Coordinator, with five years of experience writing about multiple sports, but particularly football, tennis and the Olympics. Griffith-Joyner's death served to add fuel to the fires of controversy; the Orange County Coroner's Office in California conducted an intensive four-week investigation focusing upon various possible causes including steroid abuse, Lyme Disease (the result of being bitten by a hard-bodied tick), pesticide poisoning, allergies and even murder when.

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