Word: flo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...flamboyant Flo-Jo, as fans call her, is the only athlete whose fingernail colors are as striking as her times. Famous for her sexy, one- legged tights, she appeared at her heats and semifinals wearing a racy, hooded bodysuit. The aerodynamics may have helped: on her first sprint she ran 10.88 to better Evelyn Ashford's Olympic record. When Ashford, looking sleek and fast, equaled that time in her semifinal, Flo countered by running 10.62 in her next heat. Although her rivalry with Griffith Joyner is not as public as Lewis' and Johnson's, Ashford battled fiercely to retain...
Florence Griffith Joyner has always looked sensational on the track. In the 1984 Olympic trials she glistened in shimmering bodysuits, earning the nickname "Fluorescent Flo." In the Los Angeles Games, in which she won a silver medal in the 200 meters, she flaunted 6-in. fingernails, which didn't cause any apparent wind drag. At the world championships in Rome last year, she resembled an exotic alien in her hooded bodysuit. And at this year's Olympic trials in Indianapolis, she titillated fans with the "one-legger," which covers one limb in vivid color and leaves the other muscularly bare...
...factor behind such dramatic improvement. Griffith Joyner attributes it to hard work and collaboration with her husband of almost a year, Triple Jumper Al Joyner (who narrowly missed a berth on this year's team). "I've trained a lot harder, maybe three times harder, this year," says Flo-Jo, as fans call her. Always a glutton for workouts, she often endures 1,000 sit-ups a day. Last fall she added almost daily sessions with weights, and can now squat an impressive 320 lbs. "In order to burst out of the blocks, you need a lot of leg strength...
...coach, Bob Kersee, had found gold for other athletes, including Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who is Kersee's wife and Al Joyner's sister (making the four of them a sort of First Family of U.S. track). "Bobby told me to go to the trials in the 200," says Flo-Jo. "But Al and I had decided I'd go to the trials in the 100 and 200." After the event, Griffith Joyner announced that instead of Kersee, her husband would henceforth be her coach...
...season's main song-and-dance items, Ziegfeld and Winnie, are biographies with vapid books and recycled songs. The portrait of Showman Flo is slack and bland, the glimpse of Churchill in wartime likely to appeal only to those with nostalgia for buzz bombs. In the wings: mostly revivals, including Can-Can and Brigadoon. Bemoans Producer Cameron Mackintosh (The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables): "It's Mausoleum Alley here." In part, the West End is the ironic victim of its own past successes. Fourteen shows now running in London have been playing for a year or more...