The highlight of her career was at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, where she won a silver medal in the 200m behind Florence Griffith-Joyner's still-standing world record of 21.34. Jackson ran a Jamaican record time of 21.72 seconds that was .01 seconds short of the pre-Olympic world record Griffith-Joyner broke. In the process, she finished ahead of then-200m World Champion Silke Moller (5th), Heike Drechsler (3rd) and teammate Merlene Ottey (4th). Ottey would regain the Jamaican record in 1990. She won a silver medal in the 200m at the 1989 IAAF World Indoor Championships behind Ottey. Later that year she broke the Jamaican 400m record with a time of 49.57 seconds, which would stand as the national record for 13 years. In November 1990, she married Hugh Small.