Editing Kerri Strug (section)

===1996 Olympics===
Strug participated in the [[Gymnastics at the 1996 Summer Olympics|1996 Olympics]] as a member of the U.S. women's team, often referred to as the [[Magnificent Seven (gymnastics)|Magnificent Seven]]. After compulsories, Strug was ranked 9th overall and had placed high enough to qualify herself for the all-around. She posted the second-highest score on floor exercise—but qualified first in floor exercise event finals after the team final and ahead of eventual floor exercise gold medalist [[Lilia Podkopayeva]]—and fourth-highest on vault, which would qualify her for event finals in her two strongest events. In the team competition, an event dominated by the Soviets for decades and never won by the United States, the U.S. competed with the Russian, Romanian, and Ukrainian teams. The Russians came into the team competition with a very narrow lead. The event came down to the final rotation on the final day of the team competition, July 23, 1996.

Going into the final rotation, with the Russians on floor exercise and the U.S. on vault, the U.S. women held a commanding 0.897-point<ref name=ESPN/> lead over the Russian team. However, it was still possible for the Russians to take the gold if the U.S. women collapsed. The first four U.S. gymnasts landed their vaults, but struggled to land them cleanly, taking steps and hops. Adding to the drama, Strug's teammate [[Dominique Moceanu]] fell twice, registering a poor score. Strug was the last to vault for the United States.

Strug under-rotated her first attempt, causing her to fall and injure her ankle. As a result, the attempt was awarded 9.162 points.<ref name=ESPN/> Russian gymnast [[Elena Dolgopolova]] finished her floor routine about 10 seconds after Strug sat her first vault, with 1994 floor world champion [[Dina Kochetkova]] and reigning Russian national floor champion [[Roza Galieva]] still to perform their routines.<ref>Women's Team Artistic Gymnastics Atlanta 1996 Replays (Olympic Channel) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNKCtqIGu8</ref> Moceanu's score (9.200) may have been sufficient to beat the Russians if Strug did not perform a second vault. However, with the top two Russian floor workers left to perform, and Dolgopolova's score yet to be posted, the Russian team could have won gold if those last three scores averaged over 9.816. Strug, Moceanu, [[Dominique Dawes]], Romanian gymnasts [[Simona Amânar]] and [[Gina Gogean]], and Chinese gymnast [[Ji Liya]] had all received floor scores of 9.825 or higher earlier that night.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gymn-forum.net/Results/Olympics/1996_Atlanta/1996_women_team_USA_RUS_ROM.html |title=Gymn Forum: 1996 Olympic Games, Women's Team Results USA-RUS-ROM}}</ref> After leading the entire night, the U.S. was at risk of losing to Russia, and Strug needed a second vault score of 9.762 to mathematically clinch the gold.

In the time interval between Strug's two vaults, she asked, "Do we need this?"<ref name=hlan /> Károlyi replied, "Kerri, we need you to go one more time. We need you one more time for the gold. You can do it, you better do it."<ref name=ESPN/> Strug thus limped slightly to the end of the runway to make her second attempt. She landed the vault briefly on both feet, almost instantly hopping onto only her uninjured foot, saluting the judges. She then collapsed onto her knees and needed assistance off the landing platform, to which sportscaster [[John Tesh]] commented, "Kerri Strug is hurt! She is hurt badly."<ref name="ESPN" /><ref name="NYT" /> The completed vault received a score of 9.712. As Strug landed the second vault, Dolgopalova's 9.750 floor score was posted, making Strug's 9.712 enough to guarantee the Americans the gold medal.

The rest of the Magnificent Seven refused to walk out to the medal ceremony without Strug,<ref>"It's Not About Perfect: Competing for My Country and Fighting for My Life" by Shannon Miller.</ref> and eventually Béla Károlyi carried her onto the medals podium to join her team, after which she was treated at a hospital for a third-degree lateral [[Sprain#Classification|sprain]] and tendon damage.<ref name="ESPN">{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/51 |title=51: Kerri Strug fights off pain, helps U.S. win gold |date=c. 2008 |access-date=August 10, 2008 |work=ESPN.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080629004458/http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments%2F51 |archive-date=June 29, 2008 |df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name="NYT">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/specials/olympics/0724/oly-gym-vecsey-column.html |title=A Hurting Kerri Strug Wasn't Ready to Stop Yet |date=March 4, 1996 |access-date=August 10, 2008 |work=The New York Times Online |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111230143/http://www.nytimes.com/specials/olympics/0724/oly-gym-vecsey-column.html |archive-date=January 11, 2008}}</ref> Due to her injury, she was unable to compete in the individual all-around competition and event finals, despite having qualified for both.  This allowed her teammates who had qualified for finals, but were eliminated due to rules limiting the number of gymnasts per country, to take Strug's place. Moceanu replaced Strug in the all-around, Dawes took her place in the floor final, and [[Shannon Miller]] took her place in the vault final.

Strug became a national sports hero for her final vault, visiting [[United States President|President]] [[Bill Clinton]], appearing at various television talk shows, making the cover of ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'' and appearing on a [[Wheaties]] cereal box with other team members. Actor [[Chris Kattan]] notably parodied her adolescent-sounding voice (as her "brother" Kippi Strug), and appeared on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' (in a segment in which she appeared alongside him). [[ESPN]]'s "[[This is SportsCenter]]" ad campaign poked good-natured fun at her injury with two ads featuring various ESPN workers carrying her around.