Kerri Strug

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Kerri Strug medal table

Apparatus gymnastics

United StatesUnited States United States
World championships
silver 1994 Dortmund Team
all-around
bronze 1995 Sabae Team
all-around
Olympic games
bronze 1992 Barcelona Team
all-around
gold 1996 Atlanta Team
all-around

Kerri Strug (born November 19, 1977 in Tucson , Arizona ) is a former American gymnast . She gained notoriety primarily through her last appearance in the team decision of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Although she injured herself on her first jump , she took a second to secure her team's Olympic victory. It was the first time that the American team won gold at the Olympic Games.

Life

Kerri Strug grew up in Tucson as the youngest of three siblings . She got into gymnastics through her sister, who was eight years older than her, who took part in competitions. She initially trained in Tucson, but then moved to Houston to coach Béla Károlyi at the age of thirteen . In Houston, she lived with various host families and trained eight hours a day, six to seven days a week.

Sporting successes

At the age of 14, Strug was the youngest American woman to take part in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. With the team she won a bronze medal, but narrowly missed participation in the all-around final. There are never more than three gymnasts from a nation allowed to take part in an individual final and Strug was 0.014 points worse than the third-best American in qualifying.

Béla Károlyi ended his coaching career after the Olympic Games. Strug trained under various other coaches and had to deal with various injuries. In October 1994, Kárloyi decided to train again and Strug returned to him in late 1995. In the meantime she had become vice world champion with the American team in Dortmund in 1994. At the 1995 World Championships, she was able to win bronze with the team.

Strug also qualified for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. In the team final, the Americans' last device was the jump. The 18-year-old was the last gymnast to start. Before that, Shannon Miller had to correct the landing of her jump with a small hop , and Dominique Moceanu had also fallen when landing both jumps. Strug injured his ankle landing her first jump. Nevertheless, she received 9,162 points. Injured, she asked her trainer whether a second jump was necessary, which he said yes. Strug was hobbling before jumping. After landing her second jump, the 1.45-meter-tall and 40-kilogram athlete stood briefly on one leg before collapsing and moving off the mat on all fours. For this second attempt, she received 9.712 points. Mathematically, 9.493 points were necessary at this point in time to secure the gold medal, so that Kerri Strug secured the gold medal with her jump. It was only after Strug's jump that the last Russian athlete, Rosalija Galijewa , did gymnastics and received so few points that Kerri Strug's second jump was no longer necessary. At the time of Kerri Strug's jump, however, Galijewa's bad result was not to be expected and so Kerri Strug's second jump seemed absolutely necessary at that time.

For the award ceremony she had to be carried by her trainer Károlyi. The television broadcast of the all-around final had 99 million viewers in the US and NBC used Strug's injury to stage the competition dramatically.

Strug wanted to take part in the all- around final two days later, but due to her severe sprain she couldn't even jump a flick and had to forego a start. Strug was also unable to take part in the jump or floor finals due to her injury .

After the active time

After the Olympic Games in 1996, Strug ended her career. She didn't go on an extensive tour of the United States with her teammates, but began studying at the University of California in Los Angeles. She also published a children's book and autobiography a year after the Olympics and appeared on a gymnastics show with Bart Conner , Nadia Comăneci and Jair Lynch .

After graduating from Stanford with a Masters degree, Strug taught for a year in a primary school in San José . Her further professional career took her to Washington, DC , where she first worked in the White House for the Presidential Student Correspondence Service before joining the Treasury Department. Strug is now working for the US Department of Justice's prevention program against juvenile delinquency.

Strug started running while in college and has since participated in several marathons.

In April 2010, Strug married her partner, a lawyer. In March 2012, they became parents of a son.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Strug.org: The Wink of an Eye ( Memento June 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) . Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  2. ↑ a b c d e SI Vault: Happy Landing . Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  3. ^ SI Vault: Day 5: A Most Unlikely Hero ( Memento April 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) . Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  4. ↑ cf. The tortured athlete's body . In: Kürten, Dieter: Atlanta '96 . [Mainz]: ZDF, 1996. pp. 54-55
  5. Jump up to the housewife . From: Der Spiegel 31/1996 of July 29, 1996, page 166
  6. ↑ cf. The tortured athlete's body . In: Kürten, Dieter: Atlanta '96 . [Mainz]: ZDF, 1996. pp. 54-55
  7. ↑ ajc.com: Whatever happened to ... Kerri Strug ( December 18, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  8. ↑ Runnersworld.com: I'm a runner: Kerri Strug ( Memento of 29 October 2008 at the Internet Archive ) . Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  9. ↑ People.com: Kerri Strug Makes The Leap - To Married! . Retrieved June 26, 2010.
  10. ^ People.com: Kerri Strug Introduces Son Tyler William . Retrieved June 8, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Strug, Kerri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American gymnast
DATE OF BIRTH 19th November 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH Tucson , Arizona