Friday, July 14 Joyner-Kersee aims for her fifth Olympics
	Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The chance to compete in a fifth Olympic Games was enough to lure Jackie Joyner-Kersee, arguably the greatest female athlete of her time, out of her two-year retirement. The 38-year-old winner of six Olympic medals, three of them gold, will compete in the long jump preliminaries Friday in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. Joyner-Kersee, appearing alongside her husband and coach, Bob Kersee, at a news conference Thursday, said she enjoyed retirement immensely and never missed the competition. But she and her husband knew she has enough left to make it to the Olympics one more time. Long jumper and sprinter Willye White is the only American woman to compete in track and field in five Olympics. She did it from 1956-72. Joyner-Kersee, who holds the American record in the long jump and world record in the heptathlon, has not made a full-approach jump since she walked off the track in her farewell appearance in Edwardsville, Ill., on July 26, 1998. Her workouts have consisted solely of short-approach jumps, conditioning and technique practice. Tentative plans for competing in a meet in Long Beach, Calif., June 10 were scrubbed because of a sore Achilles' tendon. Her first preliminary jump Friday will be her first jump anywhere in two years. Her competition will include Marion Jones, the charismatic sprinter and jumper whose goal is to win five gold medals in Sydney. The long jump is Jones' weakest event, but Joyner-Kersee said she is not aiming to beat anyone, just to make the team. Joyner-Kersee, whose American record of 24 feet, 7 inches has stood since 1994, said she doesn't have a specific distance in mind. "I'm a competitor. I'm a long jumper right now," Joyner-Kersee said. "I'm going to get in there and do my best. I don't want to underestimate anyone. I don't want to underestimate myself. I really don't know, but I do know that I'm healthy and I'll try to execute the best I can." Through her return to the sport, there has been the constant, usually good-natured bickering, that has long been a part of her relationship with her husband, who has coached such Olympic greats as the late Florence Griffith-Joyner and Gail Devers. "I'm here to find out if a 38-year-old woman as talented as Jackie can jump over 22 feet, which probably would make the team, and make five Olympic teams," her husband said. "There's one story to me here, and that's whether or not Jackie Joyner-Kersee can make five Olympic teams. Beating Marion and Dawn Burrell or whoever, that doesn't matter. What counts is being in the top three." Joyner-Kersee said she "was kind of relieved" when she walked off that track two years go. She has worked to establish her charitable foundation, has worked with asthmatic athletes and kept herself and her friends in shape in what she calls her "everyday people workout." Her return was the idea of both her and her coach. "It was as close to 50-50 as anything we've done," Kersee said. But there were times she didn't want to do it. She thought her husband's approach was not tough enough at times, and at other times she just wanted to give up. The second week in April, disgusted with her workout, she told Kersee "I don't have to do this." "He said, 'You're right,"' Joyner-Kersee said. She picked up her clothes and went home. A week later, she was back, those five Olympic appearances driving her once again. After all, the long jump was much less grueling than the heptathlon had been. "I said, 'All right, I only have to do it for 30 meters,"' she said. "'Can I discipline myself to go 30 meters?' That sounds pretty simple, but you never know."		ALSO SEE Olympic track and field trials begin Friday U.S. Track and field time trials schedule Meet USA Track & Field Coaches