(3 of 3)
If the gymnastics program has acquired a healthier attitude, Strug is a perfect symbol of it. In contrast to the stereotype, she wasn't pushed into gymnastics by her parents (her father is a cardiovascular surgeon in Tucson, Arizona); in fact, they balked when Kerri, at 12, wanted to move to Houston to train at Karolyi's elite gym. "I was devastated," says her mother. "It was really hard because my son was leaving for college."
A straight-A student who graduated from high school a year early, Strug is determined and exacting in everything. "You open Kerri's closet and all the short-sleeved shirts are with the short-sleeved shirts, and the long-sleeved shirts are with the long-sleeved shirts," says her mother. "Her room is always neat; the bed is always made." Says Strug: "My drive comes from being a perfectionist. I got that from my dad. We put everything into whatever we do."
Did Strug put too much into that last vault? She insists that the decision to jump a second time was hers alone. So does Karolyi--though TV viewers could see the flamboyant coach urging Strug, "You can do it!" "I'm 18 years old now. I can make my own choices," Strug said later, adding, "I knew with Dominique falling on both vaults, the gold was slipping away...I let the adrenaline take over." And she defends Karolyi: "He is a tough coach. If he wasn't so successful, he wouldn't get criticism. It's not right how everyone tries to find fault."
By making that second jump, of course, Strug risked more serious injury. But it was the sort of gutsy, anything-for-the-team performance that elicits hymns of praise in other sports. Even Joan Ryan, author of the 1995 book Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, which is sharply critical of the U.S. gymnastics program, points out that Strug was more capable of making her own decision than a younger girl, and that she could hardly have decided otherwise, thinking a gold medal was on the line. "Kerri did what any of the 10,000 athletes here would have done," says Ryan.
Her vault has put Strug on the usual media-hero fast track: TV interviews, a call from President Clinton, the promise of lucrative endorsement deals. She had planned to start at ucla this fall, but now she's under pressure to turn pro and join the team on a 30-city exhibition tour. "Everyone has been telling me it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get the Mary Lou opportunity," says Strug. "It kind of slapped me in the face." Just as Strug has given us all a happy jolt.
--Reported by Susanna Schrobsdorff/Atlanta