Kerri strug video 1996 olympic vaults

It seems strange in retrospect, but Kerri Strug went into the 1996 Summer Olympics in the shadows.

“You’ll never see Kerri on a Wheaties box,” her coach, Béla Kérolyi, told the Houston Chronicle in July 1996. “She always has been the bridesmaid, never the bride,” 1984 gymnastics gold medalist Mary Lou Retton told PEOPLE at the time.

As a part of the U.S.A.

2000 olympic

Women’s Gymnastics team, known as the Magnificent Seven, Strug was overshadowed by Shannon Miller and the Dominiques Moceanu and Dawes. Miller was that year’s reigning national champion and on her way to becoming the most decorated American gymnast in history, and Moceanu and Dawes were both former national champions as well.

But Strug, who began training at the age of 3, was thrust into the spotlight during the final rotation of the team competition in Atlanta on July 23, 1996. The U.S. held a .897-point lead over the