Fight for the Win!

In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics the U.S. women’s gymnastics team was looking for the first gold medal as a team. Everything was looking up for the U.S. women’s team going into the last round. They lead Russia who was in second place by .897; some Russian gymnasts were all ready in tears believing they lost. But to soon the lead the U.S. had starts to fade away when Dominique Moceanu falls twice and only receives the score of 9.20 taking away the big lead the U.S. had and leaving the gold medal up for grabs. The last gymnast to give the U.S. a fighting chance was Kerri Strug; she had to complete the vault. Strug told the media after the events were over that, “When Dom fell the first time, I thought, ‘No I cant believe it. She never falls. Then she fell a second time, and it was like, ‘Forget this. This is a nightmare.’ My heart was beating like crazy, knowing that it was now up to me. I thought, ‘This is it, Kerri. You’ve done this vault a thousand times, so just go out and do it.” The crowd is standing as Kerri sprints down the runway as fast as possible. With her difficult vault she requires a handspring and a twist dismount. As Kerri lands she slips and falls on to her backside and hears a snap in her left ankle. With that it looks like the gold would be out of reach for the U.S. team. Kerri got a score of 9.162 for her first vault. Kerri gets up to go do her second vault but pain shoots up her leg. She had suffered from two torn ligaments in her ankle. The U.S. coach Bela Karolyi has to figure out fast if her second vault is really needed to win. He decides he has to ask her to do it since they will need it for the win. With that Kerri got up from the floor and said a prayer to god to help her get through it one more time even if she has an injured ankle. Karolyi helps Kerri to the runway; everybody stops and watches as Kerri sprints back down the runway on a damaged ankle. She puts up an amazing vault and everybody winces as she lands knowing that it will hurt her so much more now. Kerri lands perfectly on both of her feet not moving an inch, unfortunately she hears another crack in the same ankle. The crowd goes crazy. Instead of falling to the ground she finishes out her performance by grabbing her injured ankle and completing her post-performance pose. She then falls to the mat, crying and holding her badly damaged ankle after completing her post-performance pose. The crowd then falls silent as they stare at the gymnast who performed a heroic vault. Kerri gets carried out on a stretcher before her score of 9.712 shows up on the board, which assures the United States a gold medal. The Russian athletes were standing speechless and stunned on the sideline. This was the first time ever they didn’t win since the 1948 Olympics excluding the 1984 boycott Olympics. The paramedics wanted to take Kerri to the hospital for X-rats but she had other plans. She wanted to be with her team when they received their gold medals. Her coach carried her there so that she can accept the gold medal with her teammates. Kerri didn’t give up on her dream she knew she had to try one last time to help her team win the gold medal if at all still possible. No matter what never give up on something you believe in, trained for or know you can do with a little bit of help and encouragement. Hopefully it will all work out for the better!

-Ashley Nodes

Weinberg, R. (n.d.). ESPN.com - ESPN 25 - 51: Kerri Strug fights off pain, helps U.S. win gold. Retrieved October 6, 2014. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/51