you have the record — the olympic record in the heptathlon, the olympic record in the long jump — and you set those records almost a0 years ago and they have still not been broken. do you think of yourself as a great athlete when you wake up in the morning? is that how you still see yourself? it's not that i think of myself as being an athlete of yesterday. i am a realist. i understand, and even understood during the time of my days of being a competitive athlete that i wanted to be one of the best, so to be called, you know, one of the greatest, you know, i'm very humble and i'm very honoured but i know the importance of people who saw the potential in me as a young girl that i did not know that i had. did it occur to you for

a moment that those records would not be broken again for almost a0 years? right. when i broke the records in 1988 and — no, it did not occur to me that they would be there — well, i don't want to say forever, but would i like for them to be there forever? yes. but, anyway, i knew when i left the sport, i wanted to give my all. i didn't want to come back and say, "oh, "if i coulda, shoulda, woulda..." so, when i left, i left knowing that i have given all i could give. you competed in the heptathlon. most olympians go in for one sport. you went in for seven. what's also remarkable about you is how many olympics you attended as an athlete, how many olympics you competed in. my first olympics was in �*84. i got the silver medal in the heptathlon, which motivated me to really

not to underestimate myself or my team and my coaches because i had never been injured before and i was dealing with an injury in �*84 and it got the best of me mentally. and so, i left those games with, you know, "god bless me to make another olympic team. "i want to be the toughest athlete out there mentally," because physically, i knew i had the ability to get it done. then come back four years later, �*88 was seoul, korea. then anotherfour years, �*92, barcelona, spain. and then, my last olympics was in atlanta, georgia. which also makes you remarkable because not many athletes compete in four olympics in a row. no, there's some, but, uh... it's not that common. you're right. and you get a medal, so... and — and — oh, yeah! sorry. i'm so sorry. no. you didn't just compete. laughs. you medalled in all four olympics. the background you came from — i don't know how many people know about it, but it was poor. you grew up poor.

there was not the kind of infrastructure support that many young kids have around the country who are competing. describe a little bit what it was like growing up in east st louis. when you're in an environment that others don't quite understand, to you, that's your norm and you don't recognise that something is different until you're outside of your norm. you know, at times, we didn't have running water, we didn't have heat in the home and sometimes, we didn't have food to eat. and i would find people supporting me, you know, through the community centre or through my athletic programme. i knew i wanted to run but you had to have money, and i would try to save my lunch money — and that was only like 15 cents. you know, every day, i would try to save it so i could have money on the weekend. my mother would always tell me we couldn't take anything from strangers.

anything that's given to me, i have to earn it. and so, when we would go to our different track meets, the coaches would say, "we stop and go get something to eat." and i was like, well... i would just say i wasn't hungry because ijust didn't have the money. and they recognised it from the standpoint of not making me feel embarrassed and say, "well, we want "you to go in there and try to eat anyway." so, it wasn't like i had asked them for anything but they were like... and i was like, "oh, ok!" and so, knowing how difficult it was for my parents — my mother and father were 14 and 16 years of age when they had my brother al first. i'm the oldest girl. they were so young! yes, so young. and just really — my father did athletics and the school. —— athletics and the school, they didn't know he had a family, why he would miss practice so much, cos he was trying to raise, you know, a family. but, for us, you know, my grandmother would get her social security cheque so, we knew every beginning of the month, you know, we'd get a lot of groceries

and then, you just try to make things last. but we just had a lot of love in our home. we didn't realise what we didn't have. we were always told to focus on what we had and not worry about the things that we didn't have and that's the same attitude i have, even in my life today, is focus on the things i can control and not worry about the things i cannot. jackie, you always loved long jump and one of yourfirst national championships was in long jump. i think you were 12 when you got your first major competition in long jump. tell me the story of how you practised long jump in yourfront yard. yes. so, long jump is still my favourite, you know. everybody knows jackie joyner—kersee's love affair with the long jump. yes. when i wasn't able to go to practice, i would convince my sisters. we would take empty potato chip bags, go to the park where they had a sandbox and we would dip the sand

from the sandbox into the potato chip bags and bring them to my front yard so i could practise on my landing of the long jump. off the banister of my home, not knowing — never could get enough sand but it was just enough for me to practise my — my landing and not let my mother know that we had left the house because when she would go off to work, we had to stay at home and we could only play in the front yard, and the park was less than 100m. so, we'd go to the park and get the sand and then we were just — and i practised long jumping. ijust thank god i didn't break anything. laughs and then, having done all the long jump, having done the track, the irony is that you get a scholarship to ucla university for basketball. yes. something totally different. i didn't think i would play basketball at the next level because i thought i was too short and — but not knowing

with myjumping ability and my quickness. and with ucla, i was like, as long as i can find balance and make sure that i would do two — i would do the two sports but i really want to make the olympic team in track and field. so, i would try this basketball, you know, because even in high school, our team, 1980, is still the only team that went undefeated in basketball and won the state title, you know? and so, that gave us some bragging rights. so, another record — another record — another record that you have. jackie, what was it like going from east st louis to ucla? what was it like just personally making that transition between those two worlds? the biggest trans — the transition was being away from home. i got homesick a lot. you know, i would cry every night but i didn't want my mother to know that i was homesick. i was like, "everything is ok" because i knew it was my decision and i had to see it through. it's interesting you mentioned your mum because, of course,

she was sick... yeah. ..your first year of university. how hard was that for you? you know, ooh, my freshman year was really challenging on so many — on so many levels. one, i'm diagnosed as being an asthmatic. i'm afraid i'm going to lose my scholarship. i'm playing basketball, things are going extremely well. i call home and i'm talking to my mother and i'm explaining to her about we just played the number three team in the nation and the number one player in the nation i had to defend and i was able to, you know, shut her down, you know, and so i'm pretty excited. but i could just hear — it wasn't that i could hear, but i wasn't — my mother wasn't reciprocating it, — it you know, it wasn't like, "oh, ok. "good." you knew something was off. i knew something was off and so, i say to her,

you know, was she — how is she feeling? she goes, "well. she thought it was her allergy. she was just going to go to the doctor tomorrow. but tomorrow came quicker than what i thought — i get the call from my aunt that mary is very ill and i had to get on a plane. i rushed back from la, landed in st louis, drove over to east st louis to st mary's hospital and they're really trying to figure out what exactly is going on. my mother was, like, quarantined. i wasn't able to go in and i could see her but she was in a coma and she's bleeding from every organ in her body. and finally, she had the worst form of a meningitis. and i had to make the decision, you know, to either leave her, like, on a breathing machine with hopes that, you know, she would have a life, but it wasn't meant to be. shejust went flat,

and then she was — she was gone, you know? she was 37 years age and it wasjust, whoa, devastating. and so, i go back to my aunt's home and i remember laying in the bed and i could just see an image of my mother, and that was the sign for me. i woke up the next morning, i told my aunt, "i must go "back. "i got a dorm room. "they got a cafeteria, all the food i could ever "wa nt and eat. "i have a scholarship and i must." and i got back on that plane, went back out to la to finish what i had started. you think your mum wanted you to carry on? yes, i know my mom wanted me to carry on because for me, it was like — i always say, it's just the whispers of her voice, you know? even through tough times, i hear that whisper. because we always talked about real—life situations, you know?

my mother would always try to prepare me for current events. she would make me read the newspaper and i wasjust thinking she was just being just — "why is she so hard on me?," you know? "why this?" my brother could get away with everything but i couldn't get away with anything! i often just think about when her and i would go to the grocery store and the checkout clerk would say, "oh, i read about you in the paper." and mom's like, "what you in the paperfor?" yeah! because i had won an event but, you know... don't you love mums? yes! yes. they're the people that can put you down, put you back in your place. in your place, right! yeah. don't get... now you made me — you made me cry, ok. uh—oh. poor nettie, she's going to worry about it. anything about mums — my mum died recently, and it's... aw. you know, anything about mums. but, you know, i love that mums are the ones that can... yes. "why are you in the paper?" right! jackie! what have you done wrong? actually, it would have been... both: what have you done wrong? that's exactly it. it's like — i'm like...

the amount of times i said, "oh, no, i won an event." "what event?" i'm like, "well, the track meet — the 400." "what's the 1100 ? " you don't even know. i'm like, "one lap around." so, you and al had made a pact, your — your older brother al... yes. ..made a pact that you were going to go to the olympics. yes. roll around 1984 and the olympics are in los angeles and the both — the twojoyner kids have done what they said they were going to do. notjust one of them is at the olympics, but both of them at the olympics. what was that olympic games like for you? for myself, this is the very first time that really on the big stage because i watched the olympics as a child and not really understanding the magnitude of the olympic games. and it wasn't until i was in the coliseum and they were having the opening ceremony and i looked in that coliseum

and saw all these people and i'm like, "oh, my gosh. "they all be here to see us compete." and i'm thinking about because my leg is injured and it was just an eye—opener. but then, when we both go out and compete in our event, my brother wins the gold medal, i missed the gold medal by a few points. and i realised that this is — we didn't realise how special it was for us because it's like, brother and sister — we compete all the time and we — it's like, what's the big deal? you know, that's — that's how we're thinking. but it wasn't until we came back home and they wanted to have this parade, they want to give you all these gifts and it's like, wow, this is this is huge, you know? and how the whole world is watching. 1988, you did win the gold. yes. in the long jump and in the heptathlon. what was the difference

between jackie in 1984 and jackie in 1988? i would say the difference in jackie from 1984 to 1988 was that i wasn't mentally tough in �*84. as an athlete, you think things are going to be perfect. you don't know how to deal with setbacks. and that setback in �*84, i was injured and even though i could have performed at the same level but i had a bandage on my leg, so that spoke to me like something must be wrong, but it wasn't. but as long as i believe something was wrong, i performed that way. and that's why when i left �*84, i left with that attitude. "if god bless me to make another team, i want to be "the toughest one out there mentally, because physically, i knew i could do it. so, the next four years i trained with that feeling of what it felt like coming up short because i doubted myself. my coaches, my team,

my team—mates, everybody was pulling for me more than i was pulling for myself. so, when i went into �*88, i didn't care what was going on. i had patellar tendinitis. my attitude, like, "hey, the leg can fall off, "i won't... "they have to come pick me up. "i'm going to give my all." and i think that's — that was the difference. and, jackie, you went through a lot because there you were, performing at the highest levels for team usa, winning golds, the country was building you up. you were in the — as your mum found out, you were in the papers. but they tear you down, too. they would comment on your appearance... oh, yeah — with that, oh, yeah. i dealt with... ..race... if you talk about racism, discrimination, you name it. i was a "gorilla". you know, i didn't look a certain way. i mean, and these are things that could tear you up internally. and you will find yourself trying to look a certain way to be accepted. but then, it's like, you know, "i am who i am".

it puts you back because when you can read in black and white that this person said you look like a gorilla and no—one come to defend you, and i'm out here doing the event, the heptathlon — i ain't trying to look, you know, all glammed up and all of that. i'm coming out here to give it my best shot and my best shot — i think i'm trying to win. i ain't trying to make friends. i make friends afterwards. i'm out here competing because we all want that coveted piece of metal — the gold — and they only have one and it's 30 of us and only one of us is going to be able to get that. and so, that was my attitude. let's talk about family. you're married to your coach. yeah. bobby. what was it like being married to your coach? i mean, did you talk athletics 24/7? could you go home and switch off and say, "actually, "bobby, can we just talk about the latest tv "soap opera or. ..'? what was that like? in the beginning, it was more difficult for me

because i'm 24/7 sports and want to talk about, how can i better this? how can i do this? and then driving him nuts, in a sense. but i respect bobby so much, you know, as my coach because i knew that i'm not the only athlete that he's coaching — that he's coached several of us to world records and several of us to... he's still coaching an olympian for paris. yes, yes, to a world record. sydney mclaughlin. but i learned to respect bobby, remain coachable, do what we needed to do to get the job done because the combination of us made for a winning combination as long as we were on the same page. we're filming this in your amazing foundation in east st louis. you're an athlete who went around the world, got gold medals in the olympics and then, came home. was it always, do you think,

important to you to come back to your community, the community you grew up in, and look out for the kids who grew up in the life that you had to, in the neighbourhood you were in? yeah. and for me, the importance of coming back was that when i grew up, i always heard nothing good come from our community. but i knew there were great people there trying to do great things and i wanted the young people to know that i might not walk in your shoes but i have walked the same pavement and you don't have to just see me on the television or read about me, you know, in your social study books or in the news clipping, that you can touch me and you can talk to me. and fast forward, here we are today in the jackie joyner—kersee center. we provide after—school programming,

provide transportation, pick our students up from school, bring them into the centre to get educational support. i want them to find happiness in whatever it is that they're doing but understand the discipline that it takes, the focus, the commitment, and never giving up. it feels, jackie, like some athletes with an amazing career like yours go on and become kind of celebrities to millions of people around the world. you've come back home to be incredibly important to the people of your community. was that a choice that you made? yes, it was a choice that i made to come back because i think it's just so important that, you know, even when i talk to our young people, they're like, "oh, you should be in hollywood." i'm like, "hollywood is where we make it. "hollywood is right here." and if we're going to grow a community, all of us can't leave, you know, because you would deplete it and then, we won't have

a community and we won't have a place to call home and i have to always be proud of where i come from. and i remember one time i was doing an interview and the guy was saying, "well, you shouldn't say you're "from east st louis. "it's going to taint you." i'm like, "what?! "how can i not be proud of where i'm from?" and that's why i want every young person, every family, through the hardest time, through the most difficult time is to understand that there is light at the end of the tunnel. your longestjump is 24 feet and change, right? right. and something more. so, to get a sense of what that actually looks like, we're going to pace it out. 0k? 0k. from — let's start from this blue line. all right. right? counts quietly one...

that's it. we're still not there. 24. so you... laughter you jumped, jackie joyner—kersee, from that blue line to here. wow. that's insane! and believe it or not, i wanted to be able tojump 25 but i never got there. but anyway... when you look at that distance now, do you — does it still kind of amaze you or do you think, "oh, yeah — of course i did that"? no, i never looked at what i've done in amazement because i look at it as i was supposed to do that, really. i executed what i was prepared to do. i didn't put a limit onto it. it's like, "if i hit wherever i land, that's where i'm "going to land." i think you should show this to the kids just to remind them... yes! ..when they think you're an old lady. cos, i mean, i'm in the books! just look. show them. right. you do this. i know. because they're like, "can we see you jump?" i'm like, "yes". laughter but we know you can do it. the greatest female athlete of the 20th century. thank you. yes. 0h. thank you.

hello. if you like cool weather with lots of clouds, then the weekend may be perfect for you but be careful what you wish for — it may end up being a little too chilly with the rain and the wind off the north sea. and, for many of us, actually, the weekend is looking quite mixed. at the moment on the satellite picture, we've clouds circling the uk. this cloud here is responsible

for the damp weather and you can see the outbreaks of rain there across many eastern parts of the country. but earlier on in the night, we will have had some clear spells out towards the west. and 7am temperatures around 11—13 degrees with lower values earlier on in the night. so, a lot of cloud to start the day wherever you are but soon, sunny spells will be developing out towards the west and in some central areas. showers will develop, too, across wales, southern england, some in northern ireland. but here, along the north sea coast, layers of cloud, outbreaks of rain. there's a weather front there and it's going to feel quite chilly. look at that — 14 in aberdeen, 14 in newcastle, no higher than about 15 in hull and out towards the west, perhaps temperatures not even making 20 celsius, even where the sun does come out. now, here's sunday. we still have that low pressure circling in the north sea here with that breeze out of the north. outbreaks of rain from time to time but i think, for many of us, actually, sunday is going to be a drier, brighter day and, as a result,

the temperatures will be a little bit higher. a good day, i think, overall, for wimbledon on sunday and it's looking hot and sunny in germany, as well, for that football match. now, let's have a look at the forecast, then, for sunday evening if you're planning to spend it outdoors, perhaps in your garden, looking mostly dry across most of the uk. here's a look at the forecast for monday now. surprise, surprise — a weather front sweeps in from the southwest. it'll bring outbreaks of rain, potentially heavy showers at times, even some thunderstorms possible, but this time, i think eastern areas should hang on to the better weather and because there's going to be a bit of a change in the wind direction — so, coming in from the south — the temperatures will be typically in the low 20s. how about the outlook? well, next week, again, a mixed bag in the north of the country but further south, there are hints — tentative hints — that things are going to be turning a little bit warmer. that's it. bye— bye.

hey, i'm zof, with the catch up. tonight: holly willoughby�*s stalker sentenced. two days until the euro final. and a baby tiger trying to roar. our top story: a security guard who plotted to abduct, rape and murder holly willoughby has been sentenced and must serve at least 16 years in prison. gavin plumb said his "ultimate fantasy" was to use tools he had assembled to inflict sexual acts and violence against holly. the 37—year—old was caught after he unknowingly disclosed his plans to an undercover police officer operating in an online chat room. some other stories: it's just two days to go now until england face spain in the euros final. gareth southgate said england will have to be "tactically perfect"

to beat them. this is the third time in the past four major competitions that southgate has brought them to the semifinal of either the euros or world cup. let's see if they can finally bring it home. and this is the moment football fans surrounded a london bus with an eye—catching name during celebrations after england's euro semifinal win against the netherlands on wednesday. but there's a bit of a catch — some people thought the bus had been named after the england playerjude bellingham, unaware bellingham is actually a place in southeast london. and time now for 10 seconds of a baby cub in west wales trying to roar. squeaks ok, that is just adorable. sumatran tigers are one of the world's most endangered species but this cub, zara, provides a lot of hope. it may be a while, though, until she perfects that roar! you're all caught up now.

see you later.

live from washington, this is bbc news. us presidentjoe biden campaigns in michigan as calls for him to drop out of the presidential race persist. a judge has thrown out an involuntary manslaughter case against actor alec baldwin. and as the nato summit concludes, members declare ukraine on an �*irreversible path' to joining the alliance, and pledge more military aid. i'm helen humphrey. president biden has

attempted to put his re—election campaign back on track with a defiant rally in the us state of michigan a short while ago, touting his economic record and taking aim at his predecessor, former president donald trump. he came out on stage in detroit to chants of "don't you quit", and spoke for nearly 40 minutes amid continued scrutiny over his fitness to run. many in his own party have turned on the president, calling for him to bow out of the 2024 race after new gaffes at the nato summit and lingering panic from his poor debate showing. but on friday in michigan, mr biden remained defiant, proclaiming once again he will be the democratic party's nominee, and he will win the election against donald trump. i'm the nominee of the democratic party and the only democratic party and the only democrat or republican who has beaten donald trump ever. and i'm going to beat him again. cheering i know him. donald trump is a loser!

cheering trump said