NEW YORK -- Janet Evans and Jackie Joyner-Kersee headline
the first U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame class since 1992.
Swimmer Matt Biondi, late track and field standout Florence
Griffith Joyner and speedskaters Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair also
were selected.
Also inducted: the 1996 women's soccer team, paralympian Randy
Snow, veteran inductee Alice Coachman Davis, and special
contributor Bud Greenspan.
The U.S. Olympic Committee announced the additions Sunday at the
U.S. Olympic Team Media Summit. The Hall was founded in 1983; no
new members were added in the past 12 years because of a lack of
funding.
"I actually screamed into the telephone when I was told,"
Evans said. "The USOC has so many amazing traditions and so many
positive things to set forth. Reinstating the Hall of Fame is an
important step to reinforcing the dominance of the U.S. Olympic
team."
Evans won four gold medals to tie Mark Spitz as the only
American swimmer with that many individual Olympic titles. She
still holds world records in the 400, 800 and 1,500 meter
freestyle, and competed in three Olympics.
But her greatest Olympic moment happened out of the pool, she
said. It was in Atlanta in 1996, when she handed off the torch
during the opening ceremony to Muhammad Ali.
"That moment made me realize the entire scope of the games, and
what it means to so many people," she said.
Joyner-Kersee won Olympic heptathlons in 1988 and 1992, and the
four-time Olympian won six medals in her career. Biondi won 11
medals, eight gold, and is tied with Spitz and shooter Carl Osburn
for the most Olympic medals ever won by an American, while Blair is
the most decorated American Winter Olympian with five golds.
Griffith Joyner, who died in 1998 of an apparent heart seizure,
won five medals in her career and still holds world records in the
100 and 200. Jansen overcame several disappointments to break the
world record and win the gold medal in his final event, the 1,000,
in 1994.
Snow is the only athlete to compete in three different
Paralympic Games in three different sports and win medals in each
(track, tennis, basketball); the 1996 women's soccer team won gold
in the inaugural tournament; Greenspan has made films celebrating
the Olympics; and Coachman Davis' victory in the 1948 high jump
made her the first black woman to win Olympic gold.
The induction ceremony will take place July 1 in Chicago.