Kerri Strug - The Clutch

GYMNASTICS - OLYMPICS - TEAM USA - MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

ARCHETYPE: THE CLUTCH

Day 92/135

Athletic Accomplishments

Kerri Strug is an Olympic legend, who helped Team USA win the all-around gold medal as part of the Magnificent Seven in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

When she was just 3 years old, Strug started in gymnastics. By age 8, she had started competing seriously. Just 6 years later, at age 14, Strug was the youngest member of the U.S. team at the Barcelona Olympics, where she won her first medal, a bronze as part of the team competition.

Strug was always serious about gymnastics, moving multiple times in her youth to find the right coaches to help her achieve her maximum potential in the gym. That level of commitment, at such a young age, shows just how much Strug wanted to excel and win.

Strug continued to improve in 1993, where she placed third in the all-around competition at U.S. Nationals, including a second place performance on uneven bars and third on floor exercise.

In 1996, Strug once again qualified for the U.S. Olympic team, hosted at home in the USA. In the team all-around competition—which the United States had never won—Strug qualified to compete for Team USA in her two strongest events: floor exercise and vault.

Strug and Team USA had clawed their way into gold medal contention, in a tight contest between the Russian and American teams. Ultimately, the competition came down to Team USA’s scores on vault versus Team Russia’s scores on floor, and even more specifically, to Strug’s vault scores versus Russian gymnast Rosa Galieva’s score on the floor exercise.

If you were alive in 1996, you know how this story ends. If you don’t, go ahead and skip to the next part.

Character Archetype: The Clutch

In the 1996 Olympic Games, Team USA’s “Magnificent Seven” was on the brink of winning America’s first ever team all-around gold medal. All they had to do was outperform Team Russia in the competition’s final events.

Cut to Kerri Strug, the pint-sized but muscular 18 year-old with a cartoonishly high-pitched voice, sprinting toward the vault. On her first attempt, Strug fell, earning 9.162 points, an underwhelming score that meant Team Russia could still eke out the gold with a strong performance.

However, Strug had injured her ankle in her fall, hoping to not have to take her second attempt. When coach Bela Karolyi insisted that Strug needed to go one more time, she sprinted down the runway, sprung over the vault and nailed the landing, first on two feet, wincing in pain, and then hobbling on just one ankle to salute the judges before collapsing to her knees. For her heroic, clutch effort, Strug earned a 9.712 and clinched the gold medal for Team USA. But her injury—a third degree lateral sprain—rendered her unable to compete in individual events.

But in the storybook, no one remembers what Strug didn’t do. We remember her act of heroism and bravery. We remember her putting her team first, living up to the unparalleled pressure of the moment. We remember Kerri Strug, the textbook definition of pain is temporary, pride is forever.