Griffith Joyner, Florence (redirected from Delorez Florence Griffith)

Griffith Joyner, (Delorez) Florence

 orig. Delorez Florence Griffith

(born Dec. 21, 1959, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.—died Sept. 21, 1998, Mission Viejo, Calif.) U.S. sprinter. At the 1984 Olympics she won a silver medal in the 200-m race and became a celebrity with her long, decorated fingernails and eye-catching racing suits. At the 1988 Olympic trials, she set a world record in the 100-m sprint (10.49 sec); at the games themselves, “FloJo” captured three gold medals (in the 100 m, 200 m, and 4 × 100-m relay) and one silver (4 × 400-m relay). Her world-record time in the 200 m (21.34 sec) and her earlier 100-m record still stood at the time of her death, which was attributed to a brain seizure.