THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240596
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Olympics '96
From Atlanta
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: 91 lines
These Olympic Games have had their moment, the one that will stamp them into a nation's mind and memory. It came early Tuesday evening, on the last move a United States female gymnast would make in the team competition.
On paper, it made the U.S. team an Olympic gold medal winner for the first time. And in history, it made 18-year-old Kerri Strug of Tucson, Ariz., a hero forever.
And aren't heroes carried out on shields? So it was that Strug was wheeled from the Georgia Dome on a stretcher, the pain in her left foot very real but her ecstasy complete.
The U.S. women were trying to give it away to the Russians. Strug wouldn't let them. She said she couldn't feel her leg. But it didn't stop her.
``I knew that if I didn't do this vault, we weren't going to win the gold,'' Strug said. ``All the hard work and years of effort that everyone's put behind it was just going to fall apart in a few seconds.
``So I kind of said a little prayer and said I've just got to do this vault one more time, I've done it thousands and thousands of times. And I let the adrenaline take over. I don't know how I did it.''
If you didn't watch it, you've heard about it by now: Dominique Moceanu, Strug's stable mate at Bela Karolyi's Houston gym, had just vaulted right onto her 14-year-old bottom twice. On her first vault, Strug did the same.
It was incredible. All day, the seven Americans were lionesses, quickly swallowing the .127 lead the Russians brought into the optionals from Sunday's compulsories. After three events, the U.S. marched toward the easiest apparatus in women's gymnastics with a nearly insurmountable .897 advantage.
The first four U.S. women hit their vaults. But Moceanu landed short twice and fell backward. Then Strug landed short, tumbled backward and 32,048 people sucked the oxygen out of the Georgia Dome.
Worse for Strug, she'd heard a pop in her ankle. Later, some reporter said he'd figured out the U.S. already had the gold clinched, regardless. But nobody knew that, least of all Strug, as she tore down the runway, executed something called a Yurchenko with a 1 1/2 twist - in the layout position - and brought the house down by landing upright.
But there had been another pop. As soon as her feet hit, Strug pulled her left one up, hopped twice, and collapsed. By the time her score of 9.712 was flashed - giving the U.S. the gold by a score of 389.225 to 388.404 over Russia - she was being carried off the mat. Karolyi carried her back on to receive her medal, but then she was carried off again for X-rays, which revealed a severe sprain.
``In my whole career, which is 35 years, I've never seen such a moment,'' Karolyi said.
This is where it gets complicated. Strug was hurt before the second vault. Karolyi, whose wife Martha is the official U.S. coach, said Strug told him her leg was numb. He said he was sure the Russians, with two more floor exercises to perform, could still win. He said he left it up to Strug.
``She said, `I will, I will, I will,' '' Karolyi said, ``Like a little engine. It was her decision.''
``I've been through so much pain before, one last vault, I can deal with it, I guess,'' said Strug, who spoke with her ankle wrapped and crutches beside her. ``I had to at least try even if I wouldn't have made it. It would have been really hard on me to know that I didn't even try to go for it.
Ironically, it was a selfless call that earned Strug individual glory while probably denying her at the same time. A solid but overshadowed national team member for five years who is bound for UCLA and a college gymnastics career, Strug qualified for Thursday's individual all-around competition.
So did Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes, the highest U.S. scorer in three events Tuesday. But Strug's injury likely will keep her from living the dream she's nursed since the '92 Olympics, and will put Moceanu in the all-around in her place.
``That's where the mixed emotions come in,'' said Strug. ``I'm so excited that we won the team gold. But at the same time, I had a goal for myself at this Olympics, that's really what kept me in after Barcelona, I didn't achieve my goal of making all-around finals there. And now to know that I achieved it and may not be able to participate is a little bit hard.''
It is hard, but it is done. The U.S. has won gold. And, as her own special reward, Strug has won a country's heart. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS color photo
"We made history." That's what assistant coach Mary Lee Tracy said
of the U.S. women's gymnastics team: from left, Amanda Borden,
Dominique Dawes, Amy Chow, Jaycie Phelps, Dominique Moceanu, Kerri
Strug and Shannon Miller
Color photo
Kerri Strug waves to the crowd as she is carried by her coach, Bela
Karolyi, during the awards ceremony Tuesday night.
ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
U.S. women's gymnastics team captain Amanda Borden, performing above
on the balance beam, joined her teammates in electrifying the crowd
and impressing the judges Tuesday. by CNB