![]() ![]() Gymnastics Championships, becoming the youngest female ever to win an event at this competition. In 1991, she won first place in the vault at the U.S. ![]() Strug worked hard, and her efforts paid off. Karolyi pushed Strug to her physical and mental limits to prepare her for international competition. Triumph and Heartbreakįrom the moment Strug began training with Karolyi, all aspects of her life were monitored by the notoriously demanding coach and his wife, Martha. In January 1991, at the age of thirteen, Strug moved to Houston to begin her new life. Strug's parents reluctantly agreed to send her to Karolyi's expensive school full-time, on the condition that she not neglect her education. In order to compete with the best, she knew she needed to train with the best: Karolyi. At the age of twelve, however, Strug decided that she wanted more -she wanted to make it to the Olympics. She advanced quickly over the next several years, earning top finishes in local and regional events. She also started to compete, entering her first gymnastics competitionĪt the age of eight. Strug continued to work hard in school, and even harder in her after-school gymnastics lessons. They had always stressed the importance of education to their children, and worried that gymnastics would take precedence over Kerri's education. A member of Karolyi's coaching staff noticed Kerri's back flips and encouraged Strug's parents to enroll her in Karolyi's school full-time. When she was seven, Strug visited her sister at a gymnastics summer camp in Texas, run by the famous gymnastics coach, Bela Karolyi, who had trained such past gymnastics champions as Nadia Comaneci, and who was then training America's star gymnast, Mary Lou Retton. By the age of six, Strug was taking private lessons from Jim Gault, a gymnastics coach at the University of Arizona. Strug's parents supported her ambition, and enrolled her in gymnastics classes at the age of four. Strug quickly proved that her interest stemmed from more than just a natural desire to emulate her older siblings -she also had natural talent. Strug had attended the meets of her older sister, Lisa, and older brother, Kevin, and decided that she wanted to try it, too. When she was only a few years old, Strug asked her parents to enroll her in tumbling classes. Unlike many other gymnasts, who are pushed into the sport by their parents from an early age, Strug chose the hard life of a gymnast herself. Kerri Allyson Strug was born on November 19, 1977, in Tucson, Arizona. This courageous and heroic moment was captured in countless media images and broadcast around the world, and secured her own place in Olympic and sports history. As the final performer during the final event of the women's team competition, Strug completed her second and final vault, in obvious pain on a sprained ankle, to secure the first ever Olympic gold medal for the United States women's gymnastics team. ![]() In one moment on July 23, 1996, this all changed when Strug vaulted into the world's consciousness -literally. The shy, reserved Strug, however, was never a household name like some of her other, flashier teammates, such as Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes. Before the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Strug had earned a reputation as a solid performer in the gymnastics world. This, however, is the case with Kerri Strug. Most notable sports figures cannot -and would not want to -claim that their fame is derived from a single moment. ![]()
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