Gymnastics · 1996 · Atlanta, USA
The Vault on One Good Leg
With a team gold medal apparently riding on it, an 18-year-old gymnast lands a second vault on a badly sprained ankle, and then cannot stand on it.
9.162 (fall, injury)
First vault score
9.712
Second vault score
18
Age
In the team final at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Kerri Strug under-rotated her first vault attempt and fell, spraining her ankle badly enough to tear ligaments and damage tendons. Her coach Béla Károlyi, who believed the United States still needed a strong score from her to hold off Russia for the team title, told her: 'You can do it.'
Strug took the second vault anyway, landed it cleanly enough to hold both feet for an instant before hopping onto the uninjured leg, saluted the judges, and collapsed in pain. The vault scored 9.712, and Károlyi carried her to the podium for the medal ceremony because she could not stand unassisted.
Analysis afterwards showed the United States had already scored enough to take gold without that second vault. Nobody in the arena knew it at the time, Strug least of all. The salute on one leg is the image that came out of the Magnificent Seven's week, and one of the most replayed scenes the Olympics has.
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