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Olympic medal record
Competitor for the  United States
Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Team competition
Bronze	1992 Barcelona	Team competition
Women's Gymnastics at the World Championships
Bronze	1995 Sabae	Team

Kerri Allyson Strug (born November 19, 1977) is an American gymnast from Tucson, Arizona. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Gymnastics has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since the birth of the modern Olympic movement at the 1896 Summer Olympics. ... is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Gymnastics is a sport involving the performance of sequences of movements requiring physical strength, flexibility, balance, endurance, gracefulness, and kinesthetic awareness, and includes such skills as handsprings, handstands, split leaps, aerials and cartwheels. ... Tucson (pronounced ) is the seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, located 118 miles (188 km) southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles (98 km) north of the U.S.-Mexico border. ...

Career, pre-1996 Olympics

Strug was trained by the legendary coach Bela Karolyi, and joined the United States National Team in 1991. In 1992, at age 14, she won a team bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics, at which she was the youngest member of the entire U.S. team. Karolyi retired from coaching after the 1992 Games, leaving Strug to decide whether to continue or quit gymnastics. During this time, she switched gyms multiple times. Shortly after Karolyi's retirement, Kerri moved to Dynamo to train under the coaching of Steve Nunno, where she was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa.^{[citation needed]} At the 1993 Nationals, Kerri placed 3rd in the all-around, 2nd on the uneven bars, and 3rd on floor exercise[1]. She completed a soon-to-be-popular vault, the(Yurchenko 1/2[2]), however, she had a weak second vault and did not medal in that event. After this competition, Strug left Dynamo to train at Forster Gymnastics in Colorado. Bela Karolyi (born September 13, 1942 in Cluj-Napoca Romania), is a famous gymnastics coach. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Location Coordinates : Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name Barcelona (Catalan) Spanish name Barcelona Nickname Ciutat Comtal (City of Counts) Postal code 08001–08080 Area code 34 (Spain) + 93 (Barcelona) Website http://www. ... The five Olympic rings were designed in 1913, adopted in 1914 and debuted at the Games at Antwerp, 1920. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Oklahoma Coordinates: , Country State Counties Tulsa, Osage, Rogers Government  - Mayor Kathy Taylor (D) Area  - City 186. ...

1994 was supposed to be her comeback year, but at the U.S. Classic in Palm Springs, CA she had a disaster on the uneven bars. While performing the compulsory uneven bars set (a giant to front giant to low bar catch) she pinged off the bar, subsequently releasing too early to be able to make the transition to low bar. She lost control and flew off the high bar backwards, landing in a twisted position on her side beneath the low bar[3]. She curled up on the mat, gasping and struggling to breathe from the pain, and was carried out of the gym on a stretcher and was taken to Desert Regional Hospital. The injury turned out to be a badly pulled back muscle, which required extensive rehabilitation; amazingly, she recovered in time for the 1994 World Championships. There, she looked better than ever on the floor exercise with a powerful double layout mount and a full twisting double back. At the 1995 Nationals, Strug placed 5th in the AA and came in 3rd on the UB. Kerri gave an impressive display at the 1995 World Team Trials, especially on FX. At the 1995 World Championships, she was a member of the bronze medal-winning U.S. team, and she placed 7th in the AA. Her floor exercise was by far the most improved routine of the four[4]. Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... Palm Springs is a city located in Riverside County, California. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

1996 was the best year for Kerri. Karolyi came out of retirement, and Kerri returned to his gym to prepare for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. Kerri's most impressive moment was arguably her win at the 1996 American Cup. She dominated the competition in the AA by almost 0.5 points,^[1] which was a huge margin under the old scoring system. She also placed 1st on FX and BB and 2nd on V and UB in the event finals. At the 1996 U.S. Nationals, Kerri placed 5th in the AA and came in 2nd on both vault and floor. Her momentum was building, and she had finally escaped from the shadow of world-famous gymnasts like Shannon Miller, Kim Zmeskal, and Dominique Moceanu. Kerri's time had come. Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Shannon Lee Miller (b. ... Kimberly Lyn Zmeskal (Burdette, born February 6, 1976 in Houston, Texas) is an American gymnast and coach. ... Dominique Helena Moceanu (born September 30, 1981 in Hollywood, California) is an American gymnast of Romanian descent who was a member of the Olympic Gold medal winning 1996 U.S. Womens Gymnastics team in Atlanta (the Magnificent 7). The hallmarks of Moceanus gymnastics, in the early stage of...

1996 Olympics

Her shining moment came during these Games, as a member of the U.S. women's team, often referred to as the Magnificent 7 for their talent and depth. After compulsories, Kerri was ranked 9th overall and had placed high enough to qualify herself for the all-around. She posted the second highest score on floor exercise (second to Lilia Podkopayeva) and 4th highest on vault, and would qualify her for event finals in her two strongest events. In the team competition, an event dominated by the Russians for decades and never won by the United States, the U.S. and Russian teams battled neck and neck. The Russians came into the team competition with a very narrow lead, but the U.S. had the benefit of being on their home turf. The event came down to the final rotation on the final day of the team competition, July 23. The Magnificent Seven is the 1996 U.S. Olympic Womens Gymnastics Team which won the first ever Gold Medal for the United States in the Womens Team Competition at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. ... Lilia Alexandrovna Podkopayeva (Russian: ; Ukrainian: ; alternative transliteration Lilia Oleksandrivna Podkopaieva; born August 15, 1978 in Donetsk) is a retired Ukrainian gymnast who became the 1996 Olympic all-around champion. ...

With a record 40,000 spectators packed into the Georgia Dome for an early afternoon meet (held at that hour to comply with requests of the European Broadcast Union), the United States turned in a nearly flawless performance that had the seemingly invincible Russians on the brink of defeat. In the final rotation, the U.S. women had already achieved a convincing victory due to their wide margin over the Russian team, but those on the floor believed that the U.S. team still needed a single good score on the vault to win gold. But Strug’s teammate Dominique Moceanu fell on both of her vaults, registering poor scores. Strug, who up to that point in her career had been overshadowed by better-known teammate Shannon Miller, was the last to vault for the United States. The Georgia Dome is a domed stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia that is owned and operated by The State of Georgia who operates The Dome, The Georgia World Congress Center, and Centennial Olympic Park. ... Dominique Helena Moceanu (born September 30, 1981 in Hollywood, California) is an American gymnast of Romanian descent who was a member of the Olympic Gold medal winning 1996 U.S. Womens Gymnastics team in Atlanta (the Magnificent 7). The hallmarks of Moceanus gymnastics, in the early stage of... Shannon Lee Miller (b. ...

Like Moceanu, Strug fell on her first attempt, and stood up, shaking out her ankle, which she had wrenched in her fall. She limped to the end of the runway for her second attempt. In a moment that would become one of the most famous of those Olympic Games, she landed the vault perfectly on one foot, sealing the women's team gold with a lofty score of 9.712. Strug raised her arms after her vault, saluting the judges, hopped around and raised them again, then collapsed in agony to the mat, grasping her ankle. She was helped off, to thunderous applause from the home crowd. Karolyi carried her onto the podium to join her team for the medal ceremony, after which she was treated at a hospital for two torn ligaments in the ankle. Due to her injury, she was unable to compete in the individual all-around competition and event finals, despite having qualified for both. In anatomy, the term ligament is used to denote three different types of structures:[1] Fibrous tissue that connects bones to other bones. ...

Strug became a national sports hero for her courageous finish, visiting President Bill Clinton, appearing at various television talk shows, making the cover of Sports Illustrated and appearing on a Wheaties cereal box with other team members. ESPN's "This is SportsCenter" ad campaign poked good-natured fun at her injury with two ads featuring various ESPN workers carrying her around. Her injury was also used in a "Weekend Update" bit on SNL. Norm McDonanld did an interview with her and her "twin bother" "Kippy" (played by Chris Kattan). Kippy stated he was so excited at the Olympics, he "said a little prayer" for Kerri each time she was at the vault. At the end of the interview, Mark McKinney as Bela Karolyi comes from behind the scene and picks up Kerri and implores Kippy to get up too. The humor in the bit is that all Kippy is doing is trying to get out of his chair, but he hurts his ankle. He finally does, but walks away with a severe limp. A sport consists of a physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose: for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... The first issue of Sports Illustrated, August 16, 1954, showing Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Mathews at bat in Milwaukee County Stadium. ... Early Wheaties Cereal Box Wheaties, a wheat and bran mixture baked into flakes, is a breakfast cereal introduced in 1924 and marketed by the General Mills cereal company of Golden Valley, Minnesota. ... ESPN, formerly an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, is an American cable television network dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day. ... This is SportsCenter is the name of a series of comical television commercials run by ESPN to promote their SportsCenter sports news show. ...

Following the media uproar over Kerri's fight to win the team gold, there was controversy concerning her need to have vaulted a second time. According to the final team results [5], the U.S. could still have won the team gold if Kerri had not vaulted. Unfortunately, the Russians still had one performance left (Rosa Galieva), but Kerri decided to vault in an effort to clinch the gold for the U.S. team.

What could have been for Strug at the Centennial Olympic Games remains unanswered. Strug qualified first into the floor event final and likely could have medaled in the event. Had Strug not withdrawn from further competition, her teammate Dominique Dawes never would have had the opportunity to replace Strug and win the Olympic bronze on the floor. Dominique Margaux Dawes (born November 20, 1976, in Silver Spring, Maryland) is a United States gymnast. ...

Professional career and college

Shortly after her feat, Strug participated in the Ice Capades and Disney's World On Ice, then announced her retirement and enrolled in UCLA where she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. As a professional, she could not compete in NCAA gymnastics events, so she worked for a time as team manager instead, a behind the scenes role. She later transferred to Stanford University. The Ice Capades was a traveling entertainment show featuring theatrical performances involving ice skating. ... The University of California, Los Angeles (generally known as UCLA) is a public research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. ... Kappa Alpha Theta (ΚΑΘ) is an international womens fraternity founded on January 27, 1870 at DePauw University. ... Stanford redirects here. ...

After gymnastics

After graduation, Strug worked as an elementary school teacher in the San Francisco area before moving to Washington, DC in 2003. One of the schools she worked at was Tom Matsumoto Elementary School for a year. Primary or elementary education is the first years of formal, structured education that occurs during childhood. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United...

She worked as a staff assistant with the U.S. Office of Presidential Student Correspondence, moved to a job at the Office of the General Counsel in the Treasury Department, and in March 2005, joined the Justice department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention staff as a presidential appointee. Strug has also been an active marathon runner, having run marathons in Houston, New York, Boston and Chicago. The United States Department of the Treasury is a Cabinet department, a treasury, of the United States government established by an Act of U.S. Congress in 1789 to manage the revenue of the United States government. ... The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. ...

References

1. ^ 1996 McDonald's American Cup Finals. USA Gymnastics Online (1996-03-04). Retrieved on 2007-10-02.

Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 63rd day of the year (64th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Official website
• Kerri Strug at the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique profile page
• Kerri Strug at the Internet Movie Database
• Video of famous 1996 vault
• Kerri Strug At Tucson Complete