Fitness Misstep : White House Exercises Caution, Lets Griffith Joyner Keep Council Post

When President Clinton named Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith Joyner to co-chair his Council on Physical Fitness four years ago, he adoringly dubbed her a “hero to millions of Americans, and deservedly so.”

But this week Joyner found herself dropped like a shotput from the vaunted council, apparently bumped to make room for a hero of another sort--Los Angeles bodybuilder and cable television program host Jake Steinfeld, who last year just happened to give $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

“This smells,” Al Joyner--husband, agent and former coach to the first American woman to win four medals at a single Olympics--said Thursday. “I heard this guy gave $100,000. It don’t look right. I don’t think the president knows anything about it, personally.”

Apparently embarrassed by the stink, the White House late Thursday announced that Joyner would remain on the council and that Steinfeld could wait for somebody else to leave. This was after Flo Jo had said she had no intention of going.

“This is something I love, and I’m not going to give it up easy,” she said from her car phone before word came from the White House. “I’m not going to give it up.”

A week ago, Clinton had announced his intention to name “Body by Jake” Steinfeld, a physical fitness motivator with a New York accent and an impressive physique, to the council. Steinfeld seemed disturbed by the flap.

“I’ve never even met Flo Jo. I am a big fan of hers. I think she’s terrific,” he said from his San Diego office. “I thought this was supposed to be a joyous occasion.”

It was. But in classic Washington style, an innocuous appointment to a panel created to think up ways to make Americans healthier erupted into something of an incident.

(Actually, physical fitness flare-ups seem to be brewing in the capital, where two Florida fitness gurus are slugging it out for credit over House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s shrinking waistline. But that’s another matter.)

“The energy and enthusiasm that Flo Jo showed in wanting to remain a member is compelling enough for her to remain,” White House spokesman Mike McCurry said in New York, where the president was scheduled to address a global environmental summit.

If Steinfeld was to join the 20-member council, it was clear somebody had to go. And, according to Al Joyner, White House personnel director Robert Nash called a few weeks ago asking if she would resign.

“No,” he said. “Why?”

That appeared to be the end of it until the Washington press informed him this week that his wife might be on the way out, leaving the unseemly impression that a fat donation pulled more weight than a historic string of medals.

Steinfeld says he just wants a chance to serve his country.

He’ll have to wait.

“I absolutely made a donation because I believe in the president and I believe in what he says and does,” he said. “My goodness, I sure hope everyone gets this excited about my new book.”