HER IMAGE STILL GOLDEN TODAY
Kerri Strug’s time in Houston — two stints covering about three years — was shorter than that for most who trained with Bela and Martha Karolyi, but she retains a unique place by virtue of her two Olympic appearances and, of course, her dramatic final vault at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Twenty years later, Strug has developed a finely tuned sense of irony about her role in one of the iconic moments of American sports, competing on an injured ankle to help the U.S. women secure a gold medal.
“I remember looking at Bela for those words that everybody knows — ‘You can do it!’ — and as a mom now, I think, ‘Really, that’s all he thought of?’ That’s what I tell my 4-year-old while he’s playing T-ball. But he knew that I knew what to do, and he wanted me on automatic pilot.”
Strug, of course, completed the vault before collapsing from the pain of two torn ligaments in her ankle, and she was carried by Karolyi to the victory stand to join teammates, the beloved “Magnificent Seven.”
Everyone who saw the moment remembers it, but Strug has a wry smile for some of the moments that most didn’t see, as in arguing with doctors not to cut off her lucky vault shoes because she hoped she would able to compete in the all-around final.
“You don’t envision your Olympic experience getting hurt,” she said. “I thought it was going to be like (Mary Lou Retton) and be on the medals podium, but instead I’m crying and Bela is carrying me and I have no (warmup) pants on.
“I’ve learned through the years it was so meaningful because of all the things I had gone through to get there, and while I was in pain I was happy my lifelong dream had been realized. But from the time I was 6, I thought I knew what it would be like and that it would be utter euphoria. It wasn’t necessarily the case for me at the time, but it’s definitely a moment I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
Strug was born and grew up in Arizona but had family members in Houston as a support system during her years in Houston. She attended Northland Christian School while training for the 1992 Olympics but had graduated from high school when she returned to train for the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Since leaving college, she has worked as a teacher and in assorted capacities with the federal government, currently with the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. She is a mentor for at-risk teenagers and said she tries to impart to them the virtues of discipline and ambition that drove her gymnastics career.
“Athletics parallels life in many ways,” she said. “It’s important for young people today to be physically active, and a lot of them are not because of all of our technological advances.
“I had an idyllic life, but a lot of kids today don’t have options. We try to provide places or organizations that will provide mentors and give them someplace where they can feel safe and look forward to going after school.”
Twenty years after Atlanta, she remains a symbol of perseverance.
“Clearly, you have some talent and put in a lot of work and have a little bit of luck as well,” Strug said. “But I really think that if you go after something and keep at it, you’ll get there. It may not be what you anticipated, but you’ll get there nonetheless. That was my experience.”