KERRI STRUG was carried from the podium with a bandage round her ankle and a gold medal round her neck after a moment of heart stopping heroism had provided the climax to the US team's victory in the women's team gymnasticsevent on Tuesday evening.
Although the splash of drama eventually turned out to be not quite what it had seemed, nevertheless Strug, one of the less heralded members of the team of spring loaded midgets in whom the dreams of suburban America are incarnated, gave us a lesson in courage and commitment that may not be surpassed in these Games.
Strug, all 18 years, 4ft 9in and 6st 3lb of her, was the last member of her team to face the vault, the final, piece of apparatus. Dominique Moceanu, the 14 year old darling of the team, had just landed on her backside in both her attempts, giving the team their first seriously poor marks and threatening a collective heart attack for the 32,048 spectators in the Georgia Dome.
Starting the evening in second place behind the Russians after the compulsory session, the US had quickly taken the lead and the progress of Strug, Moceanu, Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, Jaycie Phelps, Amy Chow and Amanda Borden around the apparatus had already turned into a delirious lap of honour.
It was one of those nights when only the US team seemed to exist in full colour their star spangled progress around the floor followed by all eyes in the packed Dome. and by a posse of cameramen intent on capturing every. hug, every tear. Maximising the psychological advantage. their coaches greeted each effort as if it were a master piece. The other three teams in the final session the Russians, the Romanians and the Ukrainians drifted. around apparatus like ghosts, their faces drained of spirit and hope.
But so critical is the scoring in gymnastics that as Strug stood on the runway, focusing herself and pushing the images of Moceanu's tumbles out of her mind, the gold medal suddenly seemed to depend on her alone.
A deep breath. A sprint. A running handstand and a leap from the springboard into a one and a half twisting Yurchenko vault. And, this time, a landing which brought her,, too, to earth. As she rose, wincing with pain and shaking her left leg, she looked at the scoreboard, which showed her a 9.1 and potential catastrophe.
She had heard something snap, she said later. "It hurt a lot." Later it was determined that she had suffered a third degree lateral sprain of the left ankle.
You get two goes at the vault, and only the best one counts. If Strug was in any doubt about how to proceed, Bela Karolyi was there to prompt her.
Karolyi her personal coach, was standing behind the boards, looking anxiously at the injured left ankle. The former Romanian team coach, he is a controversial figure often attacked for his draconian methods with young gymnasts. But soft hearts don't win gold medals and now there was only one thought in his head.
As recounted by him after wards, the exchange between" them could have been scripted by Angela Brazil.
We got to go one more time," Karolyi shouted.
"Do I have to do this again?"
"Can you?"
"I don't know yet I will do it, I will, I will." She did.
She said a prayer. "I asked God. to help me out. I knew I could do the vault one more time. I've done it thousands and thousands of times. The Russians had been, scoring high when Dominique fell. I saw the green light and I just went."
Again she sprinted, sprang, flipped, landed this time square on both feet, although she quickly pulled the left one up and held the landing pose on her right foot only, grimacing with the pain. Then she tried to hop away, but collapsed on the mat.
The judges gave her 9.712. As it turned out, the US would have won without it. But she had no way of knowing that when she turned and ran in to face the pain of the last vault. As far as she was aware, the destiny of six other girls depended on it.
If you came to the Olympics to see pure grit, here it was. While all gold medals are equal, Strug's will always have a slightly different glow. But if you were Bela Karolyi, what would you have told her when she came limping back down the runway after that first vault?
