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Kerri Strug vaulting with a broken ankle at the 1996 Olympics lands a bit differently now

"I was excited to show my daughters Kerri Strug's famous one-leg vault...But for some reason I wasn't as inspired watching it this time. In fact, I felt a little sick."

Kerri Strug landed her vault with a broken ankle at the 1996 Tokyo Olympic Games.

In July of 2021, Simone Biles withdrew from the team final in the Tokyo Olympics and subsequently withdrew from the individual all-around finals after getting a case of the "twisties" that had the world talking. She received overwhelming support as well as overwhelming criticism for the move, with some praising her for recognizing her limits and others blasting her for not persevering through whatever she's dealing with.

Some people pointed to Kerri Strug, who landed on one foot after vaulting with a broken ankle in the 1996 Olympics to help the U.S. win gold, as an example of the kind of sacrifice an athlete should be willing to make for their country.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

But was it really? A dad named Byron Heath shared some thoughts about that fateful day in a viral Facebook post that was shared more than 370,000 times in less than a day.

Heath wrote:

"This realization I had about Simone Biles is gonna make some people mad, but oh well.

Yesterday I was excited to show my daughters Kerri Strug's famous one-leg vault. It was a defining Olympic moment that I watched live as a kid, and my girls watched raptly as Strug fell, and then limped back to leap again.

But for some reason I wasn't as inspired watching it this time. In fact, I felt a little sick. Maybe being a father and teacher has made me soft, but all I could see was how Kerri Strug looked at her coach, Bela Karolyi, with pleading, terrified eyes, while he shouted back 'You can do it!' over and over again.


My daughters didn't cheer when Strug landed her second vault. Instead they frowned in concern as she collapsed in agony and frantic tears.

'Why did she jump again if she was hurt?' one of my girls asked. I made some inane reply about the heart of a champion or Olympic spirit, but in the back of my mind a thought was festering: *She shouldn't have jumped again*

The more the thought echoed, the stronger my realization became. Coach Karolyi should have gotten his visibly injured athlete medical help immediately! Now that I have two young daughters in gymnastics, I expect their safety to be the coach's number one priority. Instead, Bela Karolyi told Strug to vault again. And he got what he wanted; a gold medal that was more important to him than his athlete's health. I'm sure people will say 'Kerri Strug was a competitor--she WANTED to push through the injury.' That's probably true. But since the last Olympics we've also learned these athletes were put into positions where they could be systematically abused both emotionally and physically, all while being inundated with 'win at all costs' messaging. A teenager under those conditions should have been protected, and told 'No medal is worth the risk of permanent injury.' In fact, we now know that Strug's vault wasn't even necessary to clinch the gold; the U.S. already had an insurmountable lead.

Nevertheless, Bela Karolyi told her to vault again according to his own recounting of their conversation:

'I can't feel my leg,' Strug told Karolyi.

'We got to go one more time,' Karolyi said. 'Shake it out.'

'Do I have to do this again?' Strug asked. 'Can you, can you?' Karolyi wanted to know.

'I don't know yet,' said Strug. 'I will do it. I will, I will.'

The injury forced Strug's retirement at 18 years old. Dominique Moceanu, a generational talent, also retired from injuries shortly after. They were top gymnasts literally pushed to the breaking point, and then put out to pasture. Coach Karolyi and Larry Nassar (the serial sexual abuser) continued their long careers, while the athletes were treated as a disposable resource.

Today Simone Biles--the greatest gymnast of all time--chose to step back from the competition, citing concerns for mental and physical health. I've already seen comments and posts about how Biles 'failed her country', 'quit on us', or 'can't be the greatest if she can't handle the pressure.' Those statements are no different than Coach Karolyi telling an injured teen with wide, frightened eyes: 'We got to go one more time. Shake it out.'

The subtext here is: 'Our gold medal is more important than your well-being.'

Our athletes shouldn't have to destroy themselves to meet our standards. If giving empathetic, authentic support to our Olympians means we'll earn less gold medals, I'm happy to make that trade.

Here's the message I hope we can send to Simone Biles: You are an outstanding athlete, a true role model, and a powerful woman. Nothing will change that. Please don't sacrifice your emotional or physical well-being for our entertainment or national pride. We are proud of you for being brave enough to compete, and proud of you for having the wisdom to know when to step back. Your choice makes you an even better example to our daughters than you were before. WE'RE STILL ROOTING FOR YOU!"

Many people shared Heath's sentiment, with comments pouring in thanking him for putting words to what they were feeling.

We're in a new era where our lens of what's admirable, what's strong, and what's right has shifted. We understand more about the lifelong impact of too many concussions. We have trainers and medics checking on football players after big hits. We are finding a better balance between competitiveness and well-being. We are acknowledging the importance of mental health and physical health.

We are also more aware of how both physical and mental trauma impacts young bodies. Though Kerri Strug pushing through the pain has long been seen as an iconic moment in sports, the adults in the room should have been protecting her, not pushing her through an obvious injury.

And the way this fall of Dominique Moceanu at age 14 was handled is downright shocking by today's standards. She said she never received an exam for it, even after the competition was over. So wrong.


Athletes are not cogs in a wheel, and the desire to win a competition should not trump someone's well-being. Elite gymnasts already put themselves through grueling physical and mental feats; they wouldn't be at the top of their sport if they didn't. But there are limits, and too often in our yearning for a gold medal—or even for a triumphant Olympic story—we push athletes too far.

Now we see some of them pushing back, and knowing what we know now, that's 100% a good thing.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

@SportsJoe/Twitter, @EttachkilaTN/Twitter

Ahmed Hafnaoui had the swim of his life at just the right time on Sunday. After eeking into the men's 400-meter medal race in last place out of the eight finalists, the 18-year-old swimmer from Tunisia shocked everyone by taking home the gold in the event at the Tokyo Olympics.

Prior to the semi-finals, Hafnaoui wasn't even listed in the DraftKings Sportsbook odds of winning list, so the fact that he overtook the Australian favorites to win was extra impressive. Australia's Jack McLoughlin won the silver and American Kieran Smith took home the bronze, and though the race was close, it wasn't that close by swimming standards. Hafnaoui was the fastest swimmer, hands-down, after being the slowest of the finalists just the day before.

This, as they say, is why they play the games.

And this footage of Hafnaoui's loved ones in Tunisia reacting to his epic win is why everyone loves an underdog.


In a video originally shared by Tunisian sports news channel ETTACHKILA, Hafnaoui's family is heard cheering and screaming as they watch him swim in medal contention throughout the race. But as they watch him retake the lead in the final stretch and touch the wall first, their joy is palpable. (Definitely want the sound up for this—just maybe not too high.)

A win is always exciting, but a win by someone who was given slim-to-no chance at even medaling is incredible to watch. Talk about peaking at just the right time. Simply incredible.

A clearly overwhelmed Hafnaoui told NBC, "I just can't believe that. It's amazing."

He said he felt better in the water this morning than yesterday, and that he just put his head in the water. "And that's it," he said.

"I'm Olympic champion now," he added. "I just can't believe."

Congratulations to Hamed Hafnaoui and Tunisia, as well as all of Hafnaoui's loved ones. Thanks for giving us the Olympic thrill we love to see.


Allysa Seely made history at the 2016 Paralympic Games when she became the first gold medal winner in the PT2 women's triathlon, an event that debuted at the games this year.

Plans to bring the triathlon to the Paralympics have been in the works for 15 years. Finally, in 2016, there were enough athletes who qualified for the event.

Hailey Danisewicz, Allysa Seely, and Melissa Stockwell — Team USA dominated the winner's podium. Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images.


On Sept. 11, 2016, Seely finished the triathlon — which consists of running, biking, and swimming — with a time of 1 hour, 22 minutes, and 25 seconds. Two of her fellow teammates, Hailey Danisewicz and Melissa Stockwell, came in close behind her to score second and third place.

It was a monumental moment in shattering the notion of what people with disabilities can or can't do.

Seely knows firsthand how it feels to be treated differently because of a disability.

"I was at the gas station and this lady behind me scoffed to her teenage children, 'See, that's what happens when you eat crap and don't take care of yourself,'" Seely told ESPN. The woman apparently thought Seely's disability had been caused by diabetes.

"She was unstoppable not because she did not have failures or doubts but because she continued on despite of them." -Beau Taplin

Posted by Allysa Seely on Friday, August 12, 2016

"We still see the disability before we see the individual," said Seely.

Seely was already a nationally ranked triathlete when she received three major diagnoses in 2010 that changed her life forever.

The diagnoses were Chiari II malformation, basilar invagination, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The surgeries she needed to treat them came with a grim side effect: she would likely have to give up running altogether. In fact, her doctors told her she may never walk unaided again.

Complications from the surgeries and subsequent surgeries to treat the complications led to the amputation of her left leg below the knee. Seely started physical therapy almost immediately. The work was exhausting, as her body learned to use muscles in ways it never had before. Slowly but surely, however, she made progress toward her goal.

Doctors told her to think "realistically" about her recovery, but Seely would not be dissuaded. She was determined to run again.

The double amputation isn't the only thing that affects Seely's mobility. Her brain condition causes her to lack proprioception, which tells you where your body is in space without looking. When Seely's running, she often has to look down to know what her legs are doing.

In August 2010, Seely had her first brain surgery, and in April 2011, she finished a collegiate triathlon.

"I can still remember how it felt to accomplish something that nobody thought I could," she told ESPN.

Even if she didn't have physical obstacles, Seely's athletic achievements are amazing. Her journey is a reminder that there's no one way to be a strong, impressive athlete — and that you can't tell how healthy or fit or capable someone is just by looking at them.

Allysa Seely at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images.

"For a lot of people, all they see is my amputation; they don't see the challenges in and out of every day," Seely told ESPN.

Five years later, here she is, a gold medal triathlete:

Danisewicz, Seely, and Stockwell with their medals. Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images.

Sure, not every disabled person can do what Seely and her teammates have done, just like not every able-bodied person can complete a triathlon. Her win and the fact that there were enough qualifying Paralympians to include the triathlon event this year show just how wrong the notion of people with disabilities being incapable — or as the woman at the gas station claimed, a consequence of "eating crap and not taking care of yourself" — truly is.

Hopefully, thanks to the awesome performances at the Paralympics this year and every year, it will soon be left in the dust where it belongs.

You've probably heard of badass Olympian Gabby Douglas.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images.

She's a gymnast who is currently competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics for Team USA.


On Aug. 9, 2016, Douglas and her teammates jumped, flipped, and spun their way onto the gold medal podium for the women's gymnastics team all-around. They got up on the stand and stood proudly as the U.S. national anthem blared through the stadium.  

It was a happy moment. Until some jerks on the internet chimed in.

People online started criticizing Douglas for not putting her hand over her heart during the national anthem. She wasn't being patriotic enough, they said.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images.

The Virginia-born woman competing for Team USA in the Olympics while draped in a leotard almost literally made out of  the American flag isn't patriotic enough.

I would say it's absurd, but we all know her patriotism isn't really the issue. After all, Michael Phelps laughed at his buddies' antics while the national anthem played for one of his gold medals, and no one took to Twitter to harass him.

But Douglas is black and a woman, and internet trolls, that's a double whammy in terms of being a target for harassment about everything from her hair to her smile to her general demeanor and even accusing her of bleaching her skin.

Women of color have to deal with more online harassment than anyone else by a long shot.

"I tried to stay off the internet because there's just so much negativity," Douglas reportedly said, choking back tears. "Either it was about my hair or my hand not over my heart [on the podium] or I look depressed. ... It was hurtful. It was hurtful. It was. It's been kind of a lot to deal with."

"Ghostbusters" star and Olympics enthusiast Leslie Jones also knows a thing or two about online harassment.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.

Jones faced an absolutely horrific amount of harassment after "Ghostbusters" premiered in July, and when she heard what was happening to Gabby, she jumped to the gymnast's defense.

Jones started the hashtag #LOVE4GABBYUSA — a spin on the #LoveForLeslieJ hashtag people used to support her just a month ago — and other Twitter users started jumping in fast.

Gabby received support from TV producer Shonda Rhimes:

From actresses Kerry Washington and Gabrielle Union:

And TV writer Jose Molina:

If you ask me, comedian Aparna Nancherla said it best:

The internet can be a pretty terrible place. Harassment of women and people of color is commonplace, and most people don't have celebrities and hashtags to come to their defense.

One thing is for sure, though. Gabby Douglas is inspiring a lot more love than hate.

Because for every hurtful tweet, there's one like this: