Kerri strug gymnastics video
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Russia and Romania were clearly the teams to beat. Her undergraduate degree is in sociology from Stanford University, and her graduate degree in education is from UCLA. And nobody will ever forget it.
Where is Kerri Strug Now?
Her life was never really the same after the 1996 Olympic Games, but, then again, how could it?
Moceanu fell twice, leaving Strug with the pressure. But one more vault was needed for that team gold medal, and Bela Karolyi looked to Strug to make it happen, despite the injury.
Strug somehow got set for a second vault, somehow how sprinted down the runway, somehow sprung off the board, and somehow stuck the landing to win the Olympic gold medal.
That was the moment when Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug became a national hero, and the scene of Karolyi carrying her off the medal podium is iconic.
For those thinking a national hero is a bit of a stretch, her life after she stuck the landing was a paradise for any celebrity. She got to visit President Bill Clinton, was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and a box of Wheaties, was the featured guest on talk shows, and was featured in commercials and even Saturday Night Live.
Anywhere you looked, there was American gymnast Kerri Strug, the young woman who somehow pulled off the most important vault of her life on a bum ankle.
There's no doubt the team was getting better, but coach Bela Karolyi expected greatness and wasn't going to stop pushing until Team USA got the job done.
Strug left her family in Arizona to train with the team in Houston, Texas.
These are only part of what made the first gold medal over the Russians and Romanians so special. She attended a private school there and graduated in 1995.
Nobody displayed that more than Kerri Strug at the 1996 Olympic Games
You see, back then, Team USA was not the juggernaut it is today. All about the gymnastics legend and her 1996 Olympics injury
KERRI Strug is a legend in the gymnastics world who brought home a gold medal for the US team – despite picking up a severe injury.
But who is the retired American gymnast legend and what happened to her after the 1996 Olympic Games?
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Who is Kerri Strug?
Kerri Strug was born in 1977 and is a retired gymnast who represented the US in the Olympics in the 90s.
The Arizona-born legend was a member of the Magnificent Seven – the all-round women’s gymnastics team from 1996.
She began gymnastics training at only three years old after watching her sister Lisa compete in various competitions.
In 1992 she was the youngest member of the entire US Olympic team – representing her country at just 14 and winning bronze.
She is a five-time World Championships team member and has earned over thirty medals in international competitions.
After the 1996 Olympics, Kerri reached legend status and appeared on numerous TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210, Saturday Night Live, Dateline, and more.
The gymnast went to Stanford University where she was a Kappa Alpha Theta member and did a degree in communications.
She then went on to do an MA at Stanford in sociology.
What happened to Kerri Strug at the 1996 Olympics?
In the final rotation where the US were on vault, the first four gymnasts landed their vaults – but not clean enough to beat other countries for gold.
Kerri’s teammate Dominique Moceanu also fell twice, granting her a poor score and consequently bringing the team average down.
Kerri was the last to vault for the US.
But on her first attempt, she sadly under-rotated causing her to fall and injure her ankle.
Despite this, she was still awarded 9.162 points.
In spite of her injury, the team asked her to go up one more time to repeat her vault.
The legend limped to the end of the runway to make a second attempt as all eyes were on her.
She landed the vault incredibly on both feet before hopping onto her uninjured foot and saluting to the judges.
Soon after, she instantly collapsed to her knees in immense pain and required urgent assistance.
The vault received an incredible score of 9.712 – gaining the US team a gold medal.
The rest of the Magnificent Seven refused to walk out to the medal ceremony without Kerri, so their coach Béla Károlyi carried her to the podium.
What was Kerri Strug’s injury?
Kerri severely injured her ankle on the vault, with many critics saying she shouldn’t have been asked to repeat it by her coach or team.
She reportedly got treated for a third-degree lateral sprain on her left ankle.
Kerri tragically struggled to recover from her injury and retired from gymnastics.
Where is Kerri Strug now?
Kerri has had various careers since gymnastics, from a role as a primary school teacher to taking part in Disney‘s World on Ice, Paris 2024 Olympics reports.
She also served as a spokesperson for the Special Olympics and the Children’s Miracle Network.
Kerri has written two books and lives in Washington D.C.
with her lawyer husband Robert Fischer, who she married in 2010, and their two children Tyler and Alayna. However, she suffered a severe stomach injury requiring surgery and extensive rehabilitation. She later switched to Stanford University and got two degrees in sociology. Even more unfortunate, she heard her ankle pop.
As it turns out, she had torn two ligaments in her ankle.
She then moved to Houston to train with a famous coach, Bela Karolyi. They also helped her cope with injuries, pressure, and fame.
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Education & Qualifications
Kerri Strug is a former gymnast who went to Green Fields Country Day School in Tucson until she was 14.
Her career after gymnastics is fascinating, too.
Throughout her career, after an undergrad from UCLA and a Master's degree from Stanford University, she's been an elementary school teacher, a staff assistant with the White House Office of Presidential Student Correspondence in Washington, D.C., worked at the General Counsel in the Treasury Department, and got a job with the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
She even wrote a book titled, "Landing On My Feet: A Diary of Dreams" about those incredible U.S.
Women and the Summer Olympics.
Kerri Strug, who is now 43, is known for so much in her life, but everyone will remember her as an Olympian, a gold medalist, and the woman who helped the USA women's gymnastics team earn a gold medal with a final vault for the ages.
Strug is married and a mother of two.(Travis and Alayna), and still an inspiration to this day.
This story was originally published on July 30, 2019 before updating.
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Kerri Strug
Kerri Allyson Strug Fischer is a retired American gymnast who became a national icon for her courageous performance at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Despite injuring her ankle on her first vault attempt, she landed a second vault that secured the gold medal for the U.S.
women’s gymnastics team, the first in history. She helped the U.S. team win a bronze medal at the World Championships and placed seventh in the all-around.
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Olympic Glory
Strug’s crowning moment came at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where she was part of the “Magnificent Seven”, the first U.S.
women’s gymnastics team to win a gold medal. Burt is a cardiovascular surgeon who immigrated to the U.S. from Romania.
She was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a strained back muscle. She got a full scholarship to UCLA, but she could not join the gymnastics team because she had become a professional athlete.
Kerri worked as a team manager for UCLA and studied communications. The team consisted of Strug, Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes, Amy Chow, Amanda Borden, and Jaycie Phelps.
The U.S.
women’s gymnastics team needed two good vaults to beat Russia and win the gold medal. She recovered in time for the World Championships, where she helped the U.S. team win a bronze medal.
Kerri Strug talks to Tanya Rivero about winning gold in 1996 with an injured ankle.
Strug moved to Tucson in 1995 and trained with Akopian and Gault.
Her parents were very supportive of her gymnastics career and attended many of her competitions. She later found out that she had torn two ligaments in her ankle and could not compete in the individual events.