July 23, 1996

Kerri Strug may be just 4-foot-9 and 90 pounds, but there's no doubt she has plenty of heart. The last of six U.S. gymnasts to compete in the team competition in the Atlanta Olympics, Strug hears a pop in her left ankle when she lands on her first vault. It's also a poor vault and she scores a predictably low 9.162.

Her leg feels like it's on fire. She has less than a minute to decide whether to jump again. The U.S. has a big lead over Russia. With her coaches urging her on, the 18-year-old Strug gets ready for one more vault despite the pain in her leg.

"I could feel the gold slipping away," she says later. "I felt like I had to do it. I felt I owed it to everyone." Anesthetized by adrenaline and determination, Strug lands her second vault with her teeth clenched and eyes watering. She holds her feet in place long enough to appease the judges, then crumbles to her knees and calls for help.

Her 9.712 clinches the gold medal for the U.S. as it wipes out the team's low score (Dominique Moceanu's 9.2). The U.S. wins by 0.821, meaning Strug could have foregone her second vault and the Americans still would have won on the strength of Moceanu's mark.

Strug is carried to the victory stand by her coach, Bela Karolyi, and she shares in the glory of the U.S. winning its first team gymnastics medal. Then she is taken to the hospital.