Kerri Strug
(1977 - )
Kerri Strug is an Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics.
"You’re Jewish?"
I have heard the same question over and over since I received my gold medal in gymnastics on the Olympic podium. "You’re Jewish?" people ask in a surprised tone. Perhaps it is my appearance or the stereotype that Jews and sports don’t mix that makes my Jewish heritage so unexpected. I think about the attributes that helped me reach that podium: perseverance when faced with pain, years of patience and hope in an uncertain future, and a belief and devotion to something greater than myself. It makes it hard for me to believe that I did not look Jewish up there on the podium. In my mind, those are attributes that have defined Jews throughout history.
Courtesy of:
http://www.beingjewish.org/magazine/spring2004/article2.html
Strug was trained by the legendary coach Bela Karolyi, and joined the United States national team in 1991. In 1992, she won a bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics. In 1995, she was a member of the gold-medal-winning team at the World Championships.
Her shining moment came during the 1996 Centennial Olympics Games in Atlanta as a member of the “Magnificent Seven, “ the U.S. women's team. In the team competition, an event dominated by the Russians for decades and never won by the United States, the U.S. and Russian teams battled neck and neck. The event came down to the final routine on the second and final night of the team competition, July 23, 1996.
Before 40,000 spectators, the United States had turned in a nearly flawless performance that had the seemingly invincible Russians on the brink of defeat. The U.S. women needed only a single good score in the vault to win gold. But Strug’s teammate Dominique Moceanu fell on both of her vaults, registering poor scores. Strug, who had been overshadowed by better-known teammates Shannon Miller and Kim Zmeskal, was the last to vault for the United States.
Like Moceanu, Strug fell on her first attempt. She arose, limping on an injured ankle, and moved to the end of the runway for her second attempt. She landed the vault, sealing the women's team gold with a lofty score of 9.712. Strug raised her arms after her vault, turned and raised them again for the judges, then collapsed in agony to the mat, grasping her badly sprained ankle. Karolyi carried her to the podium to join her team for the medal ceremony, after which she was treated at a hospital.
Strug became a national sports hero, visiting 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. ESPN's This is SportsCenter ad campaign poked fun at her injury with two ads featuring various ESPN workers carrying her around.
Shortly after her feat, Strug participated in the Ice Capades and Disney's World On Ice, then announced her retirement and enrolled in Stanford University.
After graduation, Strug worked as an elementary school teacher in the San Francisco area before moving to Washington, DC, in 2003.
She worked as a staff assistant with the U.S. Office of Presidential Student Correspondence, moved to a job at the Office of the General Counsel in the Treasury Department, and in March 2005, joined the Justice department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention staff as a presidential appointee.
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