Jackie Joyner-Kersee ranks as one of the greatest Olympic athletes in history.

Joyner-Kersee makes a gold-running charge in the heptathlon at the 1988 Seuol Olympics.[Getty Images]

Now the three-time Olympic gold medalist from the United States is hoping for success at the Beijing Games, not for herself (she is retired), but for those athletes trained by her husband.

Bob Kersee used to coach his wife, Now he has new wards.

In January, the couple were invited to hold a four-day clinic for China's track and field athletes. Joyner-Kersee said she hopes to see them succeed.

"Hopefully, for some of the athletes that we meet here, we will see them go on and perform well in Beijing," she said during a recent visit here. "For the 2008 Games, I will definitely be a spectator in Beijing."

Joyner-Kersee first visited the city in 1989. The great change that happened in China's capital has inspired her with confidence.

"It's going to be one of the best Olympics," she said. "Now, not only in the city but across the whole world, the people are talking about the spectacular preparation, how the opening ceremony is going to be, and your athletes are going to be ready.

"I think China is going to show the world why they bid to host the Olympic Games. I think it's going to be great because it is a beautiful country to come and see."

Joyner-Kersee was born in East St. Louis, Illinois on March 3, 1962, to a family of talented athletes. Her father, Alfred, was a hurdler and football player in high school; her brother Al was an Olympic athlete, and Al's wife was Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner.

Her sporting talent also showed early. She won four straight National Junior Pentathlon Championships from the age of 14. Her silver medal at the heptathlon at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 marked a prelude to one of the greatest Olympic careers in history, in which she would win six medals, three of them gold.

Four years after the LA Games she won the heptathlon and the long jump in Seoul. She also set the women's heptathlon world record of 7,291 points there. The record still stands.

At the 1992 Barcelona Games she won another heptathlon gold and took a bronze in the long jump.

In Atlanta she closed out her Olympic career with a last-jump bronze in the long jump, before a badly injured hamstring forced Kersee to withdraw from the heptathlon.

She was the world's best athlete, and she knows it.

"I say 'number one' with great confidence because I always compete for the best. I won't compete for the second or the third place," she said. "I think my performance ranked as one of the best, so for me it was all about giving my all and when I left the arena, I gave my all as well."

Joyner-Kersee missed out on a place in Sydney, but not for want of trying.

"I don't feel any regret about missing the 2000 Games because I knew that I only gave myself less than a month to train," she said. "I don't have any regret in my athletic career."

Kersee, an outstanding collegiate athlete, took the 1985 Broderick Cup, the James E. Sullivan Award in 1986 and the Jesse Owens Award in 1986 and 1987.

The Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Year in 1987.

Off the track, she keeps herself busy with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center, opened in 2000 in East St. Louis.

"Now I have a foundation. I have devoted myself to the young people in my hometown. (They keep) me jumping and running," she said.

The foundation has raised more than $12 million for young people in the community. It offers a variety of educational and recreational activities for young and old alike, including after-school tutoring, youth sports leagues, nutrition and health education, fitness and meals for seniors.