![]() ![]() ![]() gymnasts landed their vaults, but struggled to land them cleanly, taking steps and hops. However, it was still possible for the Russians to take the gold if the U.S. women held a commanding 0.897-point lead over the Russian team. Going into the final rotation, with the Russians on floor exercise and the U.S. The event came down to the final rotation on the final day of the team competition, July 23, 1996. The Russians came into the team competition with a very narrow lead. competed with the Russian, Romanian, and Ukrainian teams. In the team competition, an event dominated by the Soviets for decades and never won by the United States, the U.S. She posted the second-highest score on floor exercise-but qualified first in floor exercise event finals after the team final and ahead of eventual floor exercise Gold Medalist Lilia Podkopayeva-and fourth-highest on vault, which would qualify her for event finals in her two strongest events. After compulsories, Strug was ranked 9th overall and had placed high enough to qualify herself for the all-around. women's team, often referred to as the Magnificent Seven. Strug participated in the 1996 Olympics as a member of the U.S. Nationals, Strug placed 5th in the all-around and came in 2nd on both vault and floor. She also placed 1st on floor exercises and balance beam and 2nd on vault and uneven bars in the event finals. She beat the competition at the 1996 American Cup in the all-around by almost a half point, a huge margin with the scoring system at that time. She then moved back to Houston to train with Károlyi again in preparation for the 1996 Olympics. She trained with the Forsters from July 1995 until December 1995. ![]() team, and she placed 7th in the all-around. At the 1995 World Championships, she was a member of the bronze medal-winning U.S. Later that year, at the 1995 Nationals, Strug placed 5th in the all-around and came in 3rd on the uneven bars. Strug once again left home, in July 1995, to train at Aerials Gymnastics in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with Tom and Lori Forster. Eventually, the coaching arrangement with Gault and Akopian became untenable as Gault was restricted in his coaching by NCAA recruiting rules. In 1995, Strug graduated from Green Fields Country Day School in Tucson, Arizona. She recovered in time for the 1994 World Championships. The injury turned out to be a badly pulled back muscle, which required extensive rehabilitation. She was carried out of the gym on a stretcher and was taken to Desert Regional Hospital. She lost control and flew off the high bar backwards, landing in a twisted position on her side beneath the low bar. While performing the compulsory uneven bars set in 1994, she pinged off the bar, subsequently releasing too early to be able to make the transition to low bar. Gault was Strug's coach when she started gymnastics at age 3. After this competition, Strug left Edmond to return home to Tucson, Arizona, where she trained with Arthur Akopian, who flew in from California to train her, with the assistance of Jim Gault. However, she had a weak second vault and did not medal in that event. There, she struggled with severe weight loss and a serious injury to her stomach.Īt the 1993 Nationals, Strug placed 3rd in the all-around, 2nd on the uneven bars, and 3rd on floor exercise. After the 1992 Games, Strug chose to move to Edmond, Oklahoma, to train under the coaching of Steve Nunno at the Dynamo Gymnastics Club, where she trained with Shannon Miller. ![]()
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