“You will do another one,” Strug said, remembering Karolyi’s demanding coaching. “At the time, I didn’t really understand. I did 10 vaults today, why do I have to do 20?”
On the runway in Atlanta, she understood. She was 18 in Atlanta, but had been carrying huge expectations since she was 14. But she always seemed to come up short. And all she was thinking was that she wasn’t going to come up short again.
“I wanted to make that vault. I wanted to show the world and myself I was capable of performing the way I did in the gym,” she said. “This was the pinnacle of my sport. After putting in so much time and effort, I wanted to do what I was supposed to do.
“Luckily, it worked out.”
There was no luck to it, though, unless you hold with the saying that luck is the residue of hard work and design. She didn’t even think of the landing, she says now, never intended to land on one foot. That’s just the way her body, so finely trained in countless hours of practice, reacted.
And when she had landed it, she had no idea — none of them did — what lie ahead.
“I didn’t really understand the impact and the effect I would have had — that people would be asking me on a daily basis. ‘How’s your ankle?’ Are you the one your crazy coach carried up there?’ I never would have believed it,” Strug said this week.
On Thursday in Chicago, Strug and the other members of The Magnificent 7 — Miller, Dominique Dawes, Moceanu, Amanda Borden, Amy Chow and Jaycie Phelps — were together again. The occasion was their induction into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed on them by a vote of both the public and the Olympic family. It was quite an honor. The other team up for induction was the original basketball Dream Team — you know, Jordan, Bird, Magic, and the rest. Both fans and Olympians voted for the gymnasts. The basketball team, after all, only did what it was supposed to do. The gymnasts had done something that had never been done before.
Strug said her first inkling that the team had become national heroes came after the Games, when agents and promoters started calling non-stop with offers. She got her own tour after the Games. The other six members of the Magnificent 7 went on a 100-city tour and played to sold-out arenas in front of adoring fans.
Miller said she finally figured out something big had happened when she and her teammates showed up on a Wheaties box.
Moceanu said she got it during the 100-city tour. “We had fans screaming for us. We sold out arenas. We had girls and little kids and girls and older men and women and children of all ages,” she said. “People would be crying. It was amazing the impact we had. I’m looking over my shoulder, thinking ‘Is this for us?’ We were America’s sweethearts after that. It was an amazing experience to meet my fans. They would be crying. I would be crying. I was shocked how the nation embraced us. I watch the tapes, I still get goose bumps.”
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The Magnificent 7 joined the immortals in Atlanta. On Thursday night in Chicago, their greatness was confirmed with their enshrinement in the Olympic Hall of Fame. Others enshrined were: wrestler Bruce Baumgartner; marathoner Joan Benoit; figure skater Brian Boitano; boxer Oscar De La Hoya; equestrian J. Michael Plumb; basketball player David Robinson; swimmer Amy Van Dyken; shooter Lones W. Wigger, Jr.; paralympic swimmer John Morgan; figure skating coach Carlo Fassi; figure skaters Carol Heiss and David Jenkins; and producer Frank Marshall as a special contributor.
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