voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. long jump is still my favourite, you know. everybody knows jackie joyner—kersee�*s love affair with the long jump. yes. sports illustrated called you the greatest female athlete of the 20th century. 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 ia 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, 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 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 and — 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. "that's good! "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 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 400 ? " 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 longjump 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," you know? 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, right? 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 there. the stagnant air at the moment is trapping a lot of misty low clouds and fog across our shores and it feels quite chilly because it's damp as well — only six or seven during the day on thursday. a similar story as we head through friday. some of that fog could linger all day in places and give some hazardous conditions on the roads with those very poor visibilities. as i say, it's because we've got this area of high pressure with us. it's trapping that low level cloud. further north, yes, we've got a weather front with us that's given some more persistent rain across scotland in particular, some parts of northern ireland. but it's trapping that really cold air to the north, and it's with us once again as we go through the remainder of the night. where we have breaks in the cloud,

temperatures will dip close to freezing and also fill in with more mist and fog in these areas. so again, another really grey and murky start for many of us on friday under this area of high pressure. we might find a little bit more breeze picking up in the north, which means that that may aid the lifting of the mist and fog here, and some brighter weather developing to the east of the grampians, but not promised here. perhaps a little brighter in northern ireland, but again, parts of the north—east of england, north wales more favoured for some brighter breaks. but for many of us, it's just grey, misty and it'll feel quite damp again, i think, just really light nuisance value drizzle keeping it at sevens and eights in places. some of that fog even on relatively low hills such as the chilterns and the downs, lingering all day. then, as we go through the night friday night into saturday, we do start to see that weather front making progress further south across scotland, so introducing some clearer skies in the north. but it's the same as usual.

business as usual further south — it's misty, murky, grey and dank, so temperatures generally above freezing by night. and on saturday that weather front promises to introduce a bit of patchy rain further south across northern england, northern ireland. but to the north of it means brighter skies but with some showers, a little bit wintry over the hills and still that cloudy, misty, murky weather further south. perhaps a few breaks developing as we head into sunday, but we do have to wait probably until next week to get the really cold air filtering back southwards once again, and with it potential for some really turbulent weather as well. but by sunday, we might see a few more brighter breaks in the south instead. in the north, some heavier rain and perhaps some hill snow, too. more online.

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live from singapore, this is bbc news. israel launches a barrage

of airstrikes on houthi targets in yemen, including the capital's international airport. the head of the world health organization narrowly escapes unscathed. moscow pushes back against growing speculation it may have been involved in the deadly crash of a passenger plane. political turmoil continues in south korea, the opposition has filed a motion to impeach the acting president, han duck soo. and — tributes roll in for the former indian prime minister, manmohan singh, who has died at the age of 92. welcome to newsday. israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu,

has warned that his country's "just getting started" against the houthis in yemen,