The Griffith Mystique

By Jeff Eisenberg
Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]

Darnesha Griffith has never worn press-on fingernails. Every
pair of pants in her closet still has both legs intact, and the
thought of becoming a sprinter makes her cringe. So why do her
coaches repeatedly comment on the similarities between the UCLA
senior and her aunt, the late Florence Griffith-Joyner?

Probably because it is not Darnesha’s appearance that
resembles Flo-Jo so much as her mindset as she prepares for a
meet.

“I just like to sit back, take everything in, and show off
a little,” said Griffith, who is competing in all three
jumping events this season for the first time since high school.
“I couldn’t see myself with the one-leggers or the
fingernails.”

At just 5-foot-5, Griffith is one of the shorter high jumpers in
the nation and has less margin for error than her taller
competitors.

UCLA Sports Info Florence Griffith-Joyner runs with the
flag.

“I enjoy being small, but it takes a lot for me to jump
over 6-feet,” said Griffith. “It makes me feel good
when I see somebody who is 6 feet tall miss the bar. It makes me
want to show off a little bit out there.”

Women’s track and field head coach Jeannette Bolden is
always happy when she sees that trademark swagger from Griffith,
because it tends to be a good omen for the senior just as it was
for her aunt during her career.

“I can always tell just by looking at her if she’s
on or not,” the eighth-year head coach said.
“She’ll talk a lot more, and have a nice little strut
in her walk. She’ll shake her head and say, “˜I am
jumping high today.'”

Early in her career at UCLA, Griffith did not always have her
characteristic confidence, particularly in big meets.

“The first time she went to indoor nationals (in 1999), I
remember her sitting in the stands complaining that her head was
hurting,” said Bolden. “It was just nerves, but she
didn’t make the finals. Her second year, she tied for fourth,
but she left feeling she could have won it.”

Those boasts proved prophetic this year at the NCAA Indoor
Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as Griffith won the high
jump competition with a mark of 6-0 ¾, tying her personal best
and leading UCLA to a second-place finish in the team
competition.

“I went into the meet saying I am not coming home without
winning,” said Griffith. “When I missed the first jump
at the 6-0 ¾, I knew I had to make the next one because I told
everyone that I would.”

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of Griffith’s victory was
that she almost skipped the indoor season altogether. Eager to
graduate this year, she told coaches that she wanted to take some
extra classes and get ready for the outdoor season.

Bolden and her staff considered the senior’s request, and
proposed a limited indoor schedule for Griffith, by which she
ultimately excelled.

“To do something like that, you aren’t going to be
able to run and jump your way into shape,” Bolden said.
“You have to believe in your coaching and your practices
because you are not competing enough to get better in
competitions.”

Griffith has every reason to put faith in her coaching because
her primary jumping instructor is her uncle, Al Joyner. A gold
medallist in the triple jump in 1984, Joyner has coached her
sporadically since high school and is in his second season as the
jumping coach at UCLA.

“Maybe he is a little bit (tougher with me) when he talks
to me outside of practice, but I think it makes me perform
better,” said Griffith of her uncle. “I know that when
he says I can jump 6-2, he really believes in me.”

If Griffith can pull off a mark like that in the high jump at
the NCAA Championships next month, it could be the boost the team
needs to finally win an outdoor national title. UCLA has finished
in the top three at the event each of the past four years, but has
been unable to get over the hump.

“This is the most well-rounded team we’ve had since
I have been here,” said Griffith. “Before all of our
points were with the throwers and maybe one sprinter. Now we have a
number of people that are really good.”

Her own harshest critic, Griffith blames herself to some extent
for the team coming up just short the past couple of seasons.

“The past few years I know we have lost by just a few
points, and I haven’t scored,” said Griffith.
“This year my goal is to score at outdoors. I don’t
care if it’s just one point because that still helps the
team.”

An outdoor title in 2002 would be the squad’s first since
1983, when Flo-Jo herself was a senior at UCLA.

Of course any memories Griffith has from that season or most of
her aunt’s career are from videotape; however, she does
recall watching Flo-Jo compete in person more than a decade
ago.

“The most vivid memory I have is when she came to UCLA and
raced Bill Cosby on our track,” Griffith said. “She
dressed me and my other cousins in our one leggers, and we sat up
on the wall by the track watching her beat him.”

Joyner died tragically of a heart attack at the age of 38 on
September 21, 1998, a day that changed Griffith’s life
immeasurably. Although it was devastating to lose someone with whom
she was so close, Griffith has nonetheless put it behind her. She
is on track to receive her diploma in June, and plans to start
training with her uncle for the 2004 Summer Olympics after
graduation.

“(Flo-Jo) always told me as long as I give it 100 percent,
my best should be enough,” Griffith said. “Even though
she led a short life, she touched so many people. I’m just
grateful that she was here for how long she was here, and she was
here to help me. I have to thank God for that and not be mad
because she’s gone.”