Questions Linger in Death of FloJo

The night before she died, Florence Griffith Joyner felt “a little tired” but showed no outward signs of illness, her former coach said Tuesday.

“Losing Florence suddenly was a shock to the family,” Bob Kersee said at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, where he once coached Griffith Joyner. “It took me the whole flight from St. Louis to believe it. I don’t know if I accept it, but as a Christian, I understand it.”

The 38-year-old Olympic gold medalist was found “unresponsive and not breathing” by her husband, Al Joyner, on Monday at their Mission Viejo home. Medical examiners were working to determine why yet another outwardly healthy athlete died at such a young age.

Three-time world champion hurdler Greg Foster said he was told by the family that Griffith Joyner died of a heart-related problem. Kersee, however, said she never had any heart problems but did suffer from exercise-induced asthma and migraines.

On Sunday, Griffith Joyner went to Santa Barbara to appear at a gymnastics meet and had stopped by her mother’s house, Kersee said.

According to Kersee, Al Joyner told him that she reported feeling “a little tired” and went to bed, but otherwise there were “no signs whatsoever that Florence was ill.”

Asked about a seizure Griffith Joyner had in St. Louis two years ago, Kersee said she was hospitalized overnight but doctors could find nothing wrong and released her.

“It’s just a mystery to us,” he said.

Her death reignited questions about whether Griffith Joyner, mother of a 7-year-old girl, had ever used performance-enhancing substances during her track career.

Her sister-in-law, six-time Olympic medalist and world heptathlon record-holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee, urged everyone to wait for the autopsy results and not to jump to conclusions.

“At this time I don’t feel that it is appropriate, but I do know that there is going to be speculation, but right now we don’t have time to be concerned about that,” Joyner-Kersee said on NBC’s “Today” show.

After her three gold medals in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, opponents and some U.S. sprinters accused Griffith Joyner of using performance-enhancing drugs. She denied using any drugs, attributing her success to a strenuous workout program.

Kersee was adamant that no athlete he has coached failed or avoided a drug test.

“How would you feel if someone was spreading false rumors about you and your daughter had to read about this?” Kersee said.

In 1989, U.S. sprinter Darrell Robinson said in the German magazine Stern that he bought banned growth hormones for Griffith Joyner. Robinson was paid $25,000 for his interview with the magazine.

Griffith Joyner denied Robinson’s charge that year, saying: “Darrell, you are a compulsive, crazy, lying lunatic.”

Arne Ljungqvist, vice president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation and the organization’s top antidoping official, said Tuesday that it would be unfair to speculate about Griffith Joyner.

Griffith Joyner, who won gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter dash and the 400-meter relay at Seoul, exuded an appearance of good health, as have other major athletes who have died young.

This decade, at least three well-known athletes died of heart-related conditions.

* Olympic figure skating gold medalist Sergei Grinkov died during a 1995 practice session at age 28. An inherited genetic condition caused his death.

* Loyola Marymount basketball star Hank Gathers collapsed during a game in 1990 and died. He had been sidelined that season because of a heart condition.

* Boston Celtic forward Reggie Lewis collapsed and died while casually shooting baskets during a postseason workout in 1993. He had collapsed on the court a few months before during a playoff game.

Symptomless deaths can often be the result of inherited health conditions, said Dr. Andy Pruitt, director of the Boulder Center of Sports Medicine in Colorado. He noted the case of a 41-year-old Norwegian skier who died two years ago in Boulder.

“At 41 years old, he keeled over of a massive heart attack while skiing,” Pruitt said. Ultimately, doctors determined that the skier’s family had a history of heart disease and he had a poor fatty diet while growing up, he said.