![]() ![]() Her vault is considered one of the greatest moments in the history of sports and I viewed it that way until I watched Athlete A. In 1981, the Karolyi's moved to America and long story short, they eventually transformed American gymnastics into more or less the same brutal system that they had under Ceaușescu's regime in Romania. Their program was at its peak in 1976 when Nadia Comăneci got the first perfect 10 score on bars. They were terribly abusive, but results were what mattered. Bela Karolyi and his wife Marta were in charge and they had the idea to select gymnasts at incredibly young age and be in total control of them. The Romanian government was a terribly oppressive regime and their gymnastics program was just as barbaric, but they were getting results. They were amazing at gymnastics, we were not. And then the cold war happened and everything from there on out was giant pissing contest with the Soviet Union. If we go back to the 50's, the gymnasts were grown women. The documentary talks a lot about the history of the American gymnastics program. I honestly don't think I could put into words what I was feeling watching my idol win the first gold ever by landing a goddamned vault on one foot. Kerri was my favorite in both 1992 & 1996. I had zero talent but I obsessively loved the sport. Now, I watched this live on tv as a teenager and bawled my eyes out. The part that made everyone go nuts was the fact that she essentially landed it on one foot. Her second vault was flawless and she clenched the first team victory for the Americans. As she approached coach Bela Karolyi, she can be heard saying" Do we need this?" Karolyi replied "You can do it! You can do it!" So she did. She limped visibly on the way back to the runway. She did the first vault, but she fell on the landing, injuring her ankle. Her vault was the difference between gold and silver. So Kerri was obviously in a very tight spot. This was the last rotation on the last day of the team competition.The Russians were in the lead and (American) Dominique Moceanu had fallen twice on the vault, leaving the American team in a shaky spot. The US was definitely a presence in the gymnastics world and had had gymnasts win individual gold's, but we'd never won the team gold before. They were competing in the team competition, so all of the gymnasts scores are added together. So the story behind this photo is this: Kerri Strug was part of the 1996 Olympic gymnastics team. HBO'S doc has more about the sexual abuse by Nassar and the trial, while Netflix's puts it in the context of just one abuser within a horrifically abusive system that puts winning above all else. So I want to start off by recommending the documentaries Athlete A on Netflix and HBO's At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA gymnastics scandal. Related Subs and Links: The Crime Newsroom Discord /r/UnresolvedMysteries /r/RedditCrimeCommunity /r/ColdCases Directory of Crime Subreddits Crime Custom Feed Follow the Reddit content policy at all times.YouTube or Podcast posts are allowed if your account meets our requirements.No rants, loaded questions, or soapboxing in the form of a crime post.Anything that can be advertised requires prior permission from the mods. ![]() No doxxing or posting personal information.Please do not insult, attack, antagonize, or troll others. Our community offers an alternative to subs that don't allow videos or podcast links as post submissions to kick off discussion. Welcome to r/TrueCrimeDiscussion Reddit's open forum for discussion of anything and everything about true crime, court cases, and the legal system. Click Join and participate in the discussion. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |