Griffith Joyner Retires From Track Career : Gold Medalist to Focus on Business Opportunities

Florence Griffith Joyner, who became recognized last year as the world’s fastest woman, said Friday that she is retiring from track competition to concentrate on increased business opportunities.

“It was a hard decision for me to make because I’ve always loved the sport,” said Griffith Joyner, 30, by telephone from New York, where she will make a formal announcement today.

“But so much is happening already that it was impossible for me to concentrate on running. I still believe there are things that I could accomplish, but I’m happy with my career. Now that I’m on a different track, I want to give that my best.”

The timing of her decision comes as a surprise because she said only last Saturday at a news conference in Portland, Ore., where she was honored as the U.S. Olympic Committee’s SportsWoman of the Year, that she would compete for at least two more years, concentrating on the 400 meters.

She also said then that she might return to her specialties, the 100 and 200 meters, if anyone broke the world records that she set in those events last year. She did not rule out the possibility of competing in the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona, Spain.

But even as she talked about her future in the sport, it was apparent that she was more involved in her commercial enterprises. While she answered questions in Portland, her husband, Al Joyner, displayed for reporters a FloJo doll, complete with Griffith Joyner’s trademark long fingernails, that will be sold in toy stores this spring.

Griffith Joyner said that she is writing children’s books, designing athletic apparel, considering an offer to portray the female James Bond in a movie and trying to decide between roles on two proposed children’s television shows. She said that she also has several endorsement deals, most of them with Japanese and European companies, and expects more to be negotiated in the near future.

“There’s a time for everything, a time to run and a time to get into other things,” said her manager, Gordon Baskin. “She wants to be as focused in other areas as she was in track, concentrating on her writing, her designing, her efforts to become an actress and various other opportunities.”

Baskin said that he believes Griffith Joyner could have earned $1 million in appearance fees for track and field meets this summer. But he said that her financial potential is even greater outside the sport.

Griffith Joyner, a Los Angeles native who attended UCLA and now lives in Newport Beach, won a silver medal in the 200 meters at the 1984 Olympic Games in L.A. and also finished second in the 200 at the 1983 world championships in Rome. But in 1988, she had one of the greatest years ever by a sprinter.

In the U.S. Olympic trials last July at Indianapolis, she had the three fastest 100-meter times in history by a woman, including one of 10.49 seconds that beat Evelyn Ashford’s previous world record of 10.76.

Two months later, in the Olympics at Seoul, Griffith Joyner twice in one day broke the world record in the 200 meters, running a best of 21.34 in the final. The previous record of 21.71, originally set in 1979, was tied three times in 10 years but not broken until Griffith Joyner ran at Seoul.

Besides winning gold medals in the 100 and the 200 at the Olympics, Griffith Joyner anchored the 400-meter relay team to a gold medal and the 1,600-meter relay team to a silver medal.

“I really wanted to go for the world record in the 400 this year because I know that I really haven’t challenged it like I know I can,” she said. “But I’m not going to think about any ‘what ifs.’

“I know that I said I would come back in the 100 and the 200 if somebody broke my records. But I was just kidding. I put the records out there. I wish the best to anyone who can go get them. I’ll never come out of retirement.”

But she said that she will reverse roles with her husband, Al Joyner, the 1984 gold medalist in the triple jump, who plans to concentrate in the future on the high hurdles. Since Griffith Joyner split last summer with her longtime coach, Bob Kersee, she has been coached by Joyner. She said that she now will coach him.

“I won’t ever be too far away from a track,” she said.