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Kerri Strug, Atlanta ’96.
Anyone else get goosebumps just now?
There are so many great moments in sports – an unlikely comeback, an underdog team that defeats the favorites, athletes sacrificing their bodies to push through pain . . . . The Kerri Strug vault at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics is one of these moments. I can’t even talk about it without crying. I can barely think about it and keep it together. It was simply an amazing moment, and I remember jumping up and down in my grandmother’s living room, rejoicing in disbelief. I’m slightly calmer about it today, but this moment in sports meant enough to me to make it onto this blog, circa 30 years later.
In case you missed it or somehow (how?) forgot it, let me do a little stage setting. The 1996 Olympics took place in Atlanta, Georgia. Here in the U.S., there was a lot of excitement that the Olympics were taking place on our home turf. To add to that excitement, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team – today known as “The Magnificent Seven” – was a big deal. There was a ton of hype about them, particularly Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, and the young Dominique Moceanu. But by the time the competition was over, the name on everyone’s lips was Kerri Strug.
As was often the case in women’s gymnastics, the Russian and Romanian teams were the ones to beat, and 1996 was no different. I’m not going to pretend I remember the details about the scoring leading up to the vault competition or that I even fully understood the points allocations. All you need to know is that, as the competition neared an end, the U.S. team was only slightly ahead of Russia. It was close. And on July 23, 1996, one event remained for each team: Team Russia was tackling the floor exercise, and Team USA was at the vault.
Going into the last event, the U.S. was ahead, but most of the team members didn’t do that well on the vault. The team’s lead shrank to the point where it wasn’t so clear that the U.S. would pull it off – especially with the Russians still in pursuit. Nail biter!
Here’s where we get to Kerri Strug and her famous vault. She had two chances to get the team’s score high enough to lock in the gold for the U.S. The announcer even dramatically pronounced, “She’s the only one who can do it.” But as Kerri completed her first vault, she landed wrong and fell, not only losing points from her score but, more importantly, injuring her ankle . . . big time. She got back up, but it was pretty clear from her face that Kerri was not ok. She stood up and turned around to walk back to the starting position, grimacing, lifting her leg up every few steps, and, eventually, very noticeably limping. But, cheered on by her coaches and teammates, Kerri somehow took a second run at it.
Here’s what happened:
Are you crying yet?
If not, consider this: The Magnificent Seven fiercely competed against the highly skilled Romanians and Russians, who had captured the gold for nearly 50 years, to win the first Olympic team gold for U.S. women’s gymnastics. It had never been done before. And their 1996 performance came to a exhilarating and victorious conclusion when Kerri Strug did that second vault. Just another killer moment from a killer decade.