Kerri Strug was known as the quiet member of the U.S. gymnastics team, overshadowed by media darlings like five-time Olympic medal winner Shannon Miller and 14-year-old phenom Dominique Moceanu. Strug, 18, is the sensitive one, the worrier, the one most attuned to the feelings of her teammates. She remembers birthdays and sends notes. When Amanda Borden was going through physical problems, it was Strug who perked her up by sending cards. She's a team player.
So it was fitting that Strug's moment of Olympic glory was the storybook climax to one of the most brilliantly managed team efforts in U.S. Olympics history. She played through pain, convinced that she had to for the team, risking a worse injury and jeopardizing her own chances for more medals. Maybe she shouldn't have done it; later it became apparent that she needn't have done it. But she did, and America got another electrifying moment to put into its collective sports memory bank.
Replay it once more. A close second to the Russians after the compulsories, the U.S. women's gymnasts had moved into first during Tuesday night's finals on the strength of six nearly flawless performances on the uneven parallel bars and another six strong ones on the balance beam. They held their own on the floor exercise, and with one event remaining, the vault, the first U.S. team gymnastics gold medal ever was all but assured, barring disaster.
That disaster almost happened. Moceanu, vaulting next to last, wound up short both times, landing ingloriously on her rear end. America's-sweetheart-to-be suddenly looked like what she was--a little girl--and her low scores put the pressure on Strug, anchoring the team in her best event. Strug raced into her vault and landed--shockingly, incredibly--on her seat as well. Worse, she came up limping.
Her mother Melanie turned to Kerri's father in the stands and said, "Oh, my gosh, something's wrong." Burt Strug tried to reassure her that it was just a charley horse. Strug's coach, Bela Karolyi--a camera-hogging cheerleader throughout the competition--shouted encouragement as Strug tried to shake off the pain. Actually, Strug's score of 9.162 was enough to ensure the U.S. victory, making a second vault unnecessary. But no one on the team knew that. "We had no idea what the score was," said co-head coach Mary Lee Tracy. "What we saw was a kid who was shaking her leg but who saluted and ran down the runway."
As the crowd of 32,620 held its breath, she ran, she jumped, and she landed--on her feet. Or foot. Instantly, she winced in pain and lifted her injured left ankle, hopping on one foot to face the judges before collapsing in pain. After her solid score of 9.712 was posted, two assistants carried her out of the Georgia Dome as the other girls were trapped between celebration and concern for their teammate. Strug returned to join them for the medal ceremony, carried in the bearlike arms of Karolyi, whose instinct for the theatrical proved as sure as his knack for controversy.