ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER note: above
AFTER SPRAINING HER LEFT ANKLE while landing on her vault, and then on her posterior, Kerri Strug came back to do the undreamable - win the gold.
Gymnastics is full of twists and turns, but not the kind for which the Atlanta Games will be forever remembered.
The lasting image from the women's team competition Tuesday night at the Georgia Dome will be Bela Karolyi carrying Kerri Strug off in his arms.
She was such a hero, he should have had her 87 pounds on his shoulders.
He had been there before, the Romanian expatriate, with Nadia and Mary Lou for days of gold. He wasn't convinced Strug could give the U.S. something it has never had before from the Olympics, a women's gymnastics team title.
"Of all of my girls,'' Karolyi said Tuesday night, "Kerri would be the last on my list to go through the pain and the soreness to pull out a vault like that. She's just a little girl, not the roughest or toughest.''
It turns out coaches don't know everything.
After spraining her left ankle while landing on her vault, and then her posterior, the judges ruled Strug's performance was a 9.162.
"Probably not good enough" to beat the Russians, Karolyi said.
What happened next is something the 32,048 spectators in the sold-out half of the curtained dome won't soon forget. It took more than a 9.712 to win the gold. It took Strug's guts.
"After the first vault, I felt a snap in my foot,'' said Strug, an Arizonan who certainly hadn't been one of the stars among the U.S. pixies. "I looked at Martha [Karolyi, the women's coach and Bela's wife]. I knew I couldn't walk normal.
"Everybody was saying to shake it off, but I don't think they understood something was wrong. Dominique [Moceanu] had just missed [her vault], and I felt like the gold medal was slipping away. I just said a little prayer and asked God to help me out.
"I knew I could do it one more time. I've done it thousands and thousands of times. The adrenaline took over. I don't know how I did it.''
The Yurchenko 11/2 isn't a tough vault, Strug said, as long as she gets enough push. On her first one, she didn't. After she had landed with her ankles jamming into the mat, she told Bela Karolyi, "I can't feel my leg.''
On her second ...
"I didn't know what was wrong with my foot. I just knew it hurt,'' said the 18-year-old, two-time Olympian. "I landed and felt a crunch again. I'm just glad I landed. I couldn't salute the judges, and that's when I sat down. I couldn't stand. I really didn't know what to do.''
What she had done was a 9.712. What she had done was clinch the gold for the U.S. with what was later diagnosed at Crawford Long Hospital as a third-degree lateral sprain of her left ankle. X-rays were negative.
What she also had done was something she usually doesn't.
"Unfortunately, I did something I shouldn't,'' said Strug, who trains in Houston with Karolyi and is headed to UCLA as a freshman next month. "I looked at the scoreboard after the previous rotation. The Russians were scoring high when Dominique fell on both vaults.
"It was obvious I had to hit mine. When I did the first vault [and was injured], I was in shock, and it was a nightmare. I did the calculations and knew I needed a good score.''
Strug finished seventh individually in the team event, and so qualified for the all-around competition. But on Wednesday she told CNN ``I'm going to skip the all-around and try to get my ankle healed so maybe I can compete in the individual event finals,'' she said.
If she doesn't make it, well, she has a gold, and her feat now is being mentioned in the same breathless sentence with Muhammad Ali's inspiring cauldron-lighting.
She also won't just be remembered as a bronze medalist from the Barcelona Games (in team competition). She was the youngest gymnast on that squad. In the headlines, Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes and Moceanu she hasn't been.
"I have a lot of mixed emotions,'' Strug said. "I'm excited we won the team gold. I had a goal of making the all-around, and I did. I didn't accomplish that in 1992. Now, to be there and possibly not be able to compete is hard.''
She won't take the cash that goes with an Olympic gold medal and although she likely could get numerous Mary Lou-like endorsements after her vault to fame, Strug said Strug said she won't accept the cash that comes with the gold medal so she can retain her NCAA eligibility for UCLA.
As for Karolyi carrying her out for the medal ceremony, Strug said it "was embarrassing, and I didn't have on the right attire ... but I really wanted to be out there. It was a lifelong dream.''
After what she had done, it was the gymnastics world that was Kerried away.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Kerri Strug later said about her performance, ``Iby CNBknew I could do it one more time. I've done it thousands and
thousands of times. The adrenaline took over. I don't know how I did
it.'' color.