THE TURNAROUND : Griffith-Joyner Arrives Quickly With 100-Meter Run

Nearly all that most people who follow track and field knew about Florence Griffith-Joyner before the U.S. Olympic trials started last week was that she used to have 4-inch fingernails and she is married to Al Joyner, who won the gold medal in the triple jump four years ago at Los Angeles.

That’s all it says in her biography that’s included in the 1988 International Track & Field Annual.

“Formerly had 4-inch fingernails on her left hand! Married Al Joyner in October, 1987.”

As it turns out, the editors, usually meticulous about statistics, were wrong this time.

She said Monday that she formerly had 6-inch fingernails on her left hand.

Griffith-Joyner is one of those people who would come to the media tent after a race, sit and listen while the winner talked, and then leave when it became obvious that she wasn’t going to be asked any questions.

Asked one day during the weekend the reason she had not been a 100-meters runner before this year, she said: “I was a 100-meters runner. I just wasn’t very good at it.”

Saying that she is very good at it now is like saying that Caruso was very good at singing.

After last weekend, she has the three fastest times in history among women, including an astounding 10.49 that she ran in the second round of the trials Saturday. That broke Evelyn Ashford’s previous world record of 10.76 by almost three-tenths of a second.

Now everyone wants to ask Griffith-Joyner questions.

She arrived at a press conference Monday morning in a stunning red dress with a gold choker and gold brooch, black and white striped stockings and her jet black hair straight, instead of in braids the way she sometimes wears it. She looked as if she was on her way to a photo-shoot for the cover of Vogue.

Yes, she said, she has modeled. She said she also is a writer of both prose and poetry, a beautician, an artist, a clothes designer and--what else?--oh yeah, a former bank teller and customer sales representative.

Starting with the basics, Griffith-Joyner, 28, is one of 11 children born in South Los Angeles to an electrical technician--her father--and a teacher--her mother. She began competing in track when she was 7 in a program for underprivileged children at the Sugar Ray Robinson Youth Foundation.

“I remember one year in junior high when I finished first in the Jesse Owens Classic and went to San Francisco for winning,” she said. “I won again the next year, and Jesse Owens said, ‘Congratulations, but you can’t take the trip to Texas this year because you went to San Francisco last year.’

“I was so mad because I had never been out of state before. I said, ‘I don’t like that man.’ Later, I found out who he was. I didn’t know who he was at the time. I just knew he was the man whose name was on my T-shirt.”

She graduated from Jordan High School in 1978 and competed at Cal State Northridge for a year before dropping out because her family couldn’t afford for her to remain college

Bob Kersee, an assistant coach at Northridge at the time, found her as a bank teller and asked her to return. When she explained her situation, he promised he would arrange for her to receive financial aid. She returned to Northridge and then followed Kersee to UCLA when he became an assistant coach there in 1980.

Specializing in the 200 meters, she won the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship in 1982 and finished second in 1983. In her first year out of college, continuing to work with Kersee, she finished second in the 200 meters at the 1984 Olympics.

A year later, after the 1985 track season, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life. She left Kersee’s World Class Athletic Club, returned to the bank as a customer service representative and trained on her own. Some days she was less disciplined than others.

Kersee told reporters last weekend that Griffith-Joyner gained 60 pounds.

Asked about that in an interview Sunday, she said: “I’m going to kill him. I gained 15.”

“Oh no,” said Kersee, who was standing at the back of the tent. “It was 60.”

“That’s not fair,” she said. “The day you weighed me, we had a party at the bank, and I had eaten a lot of macaroni and cheese and desserts and you name it.”

“Hah!” Kersee said. “You were so wide I didn’t know if you were coming or going.”

Needing direction, Griffith-Joyner returned to Kersee before the end of 1986 to begin preparing for the 1987 World Championships.

“I didn’t retire,” she said. “But I had to take inventory. I told myself, ‘You’re going to have to run better or move on.’ I got down on my knees and asked God to show me the way. He did.”

She finished second in the 200 at the World Championships, a more significant accomplishment than her silver medal at the 1984 Olympics because she ran in Rome against Eastern Bloc athletes, but, more important, she saw a race there that changed her life.

“I was so frustrated with my start in the 100 that I would cry sometimes because I couldn’t get out of the blocks,” she said. “But after watching the world record in the men’s 100 in Rome, I came home and told Al, ‘You’ve got to get me that tape.’ I looked at Ben Johnson’s start and said, ‘That’s what I’ve got to do.’ ”

Asked how often she watches it, she said, “Every day.”

She may not react to the gun as quickly as Ben Johnson, but her start is considerably better than it was in the past. That is one reason she decided this year to concentrate on the 100 and the 200 instead of the 200 and the 400. A fanatic weightlifter, Griffith-Joyner, who weighs 130 pounds, said she also is stronger than before.

If she has improved so much in the 100, it stands to reason she also has improved in the 200. We will find out Friday, when qualifying begins in that event.

“If she can run 10.49 in the 100, she should be able to run 21.50 in the 200,” Kersee said.

The world record is 21.72.

Besides being the fastest member of the World Class Athletic Club, Griffith-Joyner also designs the uniforms.

Though she prefers the outrageous look, it is not always easy to win over the other women, her sister-in-law, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, in particular.

When Griffith-Joyner unveiled the one-legged bodysuit for the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in April, Joyner-Kersee said there was no way that she would wear it.

“You know Jackie,” Griffith-Joyner said. “She’s very conservative.”

But Griffith-Joyner convinced her to try it on.

“Al had a video camera,” she said. “Jackie was in front of the camera more than anyone else. If Jackie Joyner-Kersee wears it, it’s a winner.”

This is a very close family, these Griffith-Joyner-Kersees.

Joyner made up his mind to marry Florence before they even knew each other. Joyner-Kersee said that when she was a student at UCLA, her brother used to call her from Arkansas State and say, “I’m going to come out there and get that Florence Griffith.”

He eventually did.

They live in Van Nuys, where she spends the few idle hours she has writing a series of children’s stories about a boy named Barry Bam-Bam.

“He’s a mischievous little boy who always ends up winning the hearts of others at the end,” she said.

“Sounds like Al,” someone told her.

“He’s very much like Al,” she said.

For example, when they were on “The Newlywed Game” recently, one of the questions to the wives was: Which insect does your husband think of when thinking about your mother?

Griffith-Joyner thought of Al and her mother and said, “Spider.”

When Joyner was asked the question, he said, “A beautiful butterfly.”