+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy

publicgood

Health

Viral post thoughtfully reexamines Kerri Strug's iconic broken ankle vault at 1996 Olympics

"Yesterday 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."

Byron Heath/Facebook

Simone Biles withdrawing from the team final in the Tokyo Olympics and subsequently withdrawing from the individual all-around finals after getting a case of the "twisties" has the world talking. She's 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.

Byron Heath shared some thoughts about that fateful day in a viral Facebook post that has been 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 on 07.28.21

From Your Site Articles
well-being
Joy

She swam for 3 hours to escape the war in Syria before competing in the Olympics

en.wikipedia.org

Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini.

For Yusra Mardini, swimming means life. In more ways than one.

What started out as a passion became a saving grace, then a claim to fame, and finally … a higher purpose. As her story became a symbol of hope for refugees, it is clear that Mardini’s real superpower isn’t swimming, it’s resilience.

In 2015, when Mardini was only a teenager, her very survival depended on her ability to swim.

Mardini and her sister spent their childhood being trained in the pool by their father Ezzat, a former competitor for Syria’s national swimming team. But the daily shootouts during the Syrian civil war forced training to come to a stop. And after their father was arrested and beaten by soldiers, it was clear the sisters would have to flee their home.

It was by no means an easy journey.

The sisters took a plane to Lebanon, then Turkey, where they planned to smuggle into Germany by boat.

The boat was only a small dinghy, meant to carry seven passengers—that day there were 20 people trying to escape. But with only 45 minutes to endure, the risk was worth taking.

At only 20 minutes in, the motor failed. The group became stranded in the Aegean Sea, their boat filling up with water. Action had to be taken, and fast. Mardini shares in an interview that her sister was the first to jump in the water.

“My sister jumped in the water from one side, and I jumped from the other side, which she wasn’t very happy about. She started screaming at me to go up to the boat even though we were both swimmers.”

Two men dived in to help, and the group of four pushed the boat through the rough waves all the way to shore. It would take them three hours to make it to safety.

It was in that moment that Mardini got her first glimpse at how her actions would represent the hearts of refugees everywhere. “The whole way, you can just hear all of our prayers in one voice,” she reflected.

The Mardini sisters made it the rest of the way (through seven more countries) to Germany on foot, but it wouldn’t be long before Yusra was back in the water. This time, it would be for the Olympics.

Mardini continued her training in Germany, and in 2016 she was selected to compete in the Summer Olympics in Brazil as part of the first Refugee Olympic Team.

Though she didn’t earn a medal, her story captured hearts everywhere. As the crowd applauded her arrival, Mardini’s shame at being a refugee transformed into a sense of pride. It inspired her to become the youngest Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in history.

As a Goodwill Ambassador, the message Mardini continues to share is simple: "A refugee is a human like any other."

At 23, Mardini returned to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, bearing a flag for the Refugee Team during the opening ceremony.

Again, though she didn’t place, it was a different kind of win for this young woman who defied the odds to make it to the Olympics—twice—in the first place. Sometimes it’s more than distance, speed and laps. The real accomplishment is keeping the dream alive, believing in something bigger than yourself … and inspiring others to do the same.


"I've told this story a million times," Mardini told DW, "and if I have to, I'll tell it a million more times. It's about giving hope with my life story…maybe I can help give people courage."

Her journey has only just begun.

Since that seemingly fated event in 2015, a lot continues to happen for Mardini. Netflix is producing a movie about the sisters, and Mardini released a memoir titled Butterfly, a nod to one of her swimming styles. And both Mardini and her sister have dedicated their lives to helping refugees.

If you look at Mardini’s Instagram now, where she has 375,000 followers, she is currently promoting a UNHCR charity to support Ukrainians fleeing war.

She writes in a post, ”as a refugee myself I had to leave everything behind and do understand their pain.”

We do not always choose what comes to us in life. But our greatest potential might be just past our biggest obstacle. Determination to fight for that potential, along with compassion for others … makes heroes of us all.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
teenager swam from syria in olympics
Health

Elite athletes face unnecessary roadblocks when they get pregnant. Time for that to change.

Photo by Nicolas Hoizey on Unsplash

Many elite athletes are afraid to tell anyone they are pregnant.

Pregnancy is, without a doubt, one of the most amazing physical feats on Earth. A body that builds a baby practically from scratch is badass no matter how you look at it, but unfortunately, it's not always treated that way.

That can be particularly true in fields that focus on peak body performance, such as elite sports.

Professional female athletes are often put in the position of having to choose between their athletic career and starting a family, not merely due to the inherent reality of having kids, but due to unnecessary roadblocks imposed upon them by the powers that be.

Elite track and field star Allyson Felix famously beat Usain Bolt's gold medal count record a mere 10 months after having a baby—prematurely, via emergency c-section after experiencing pre-eclampsia, no less. She also famously took Nike to task for trying to cut her pay by 70% during her pregnancy. Her critique, along with a push from other female athletes and outcry from the public, resulted in Nike creating a new maternity policy for sponsored athletes guaranteeing an athlete’s pay and bonuses for 18 months around pregnancy.

But it's not just corporate sponsors that create obstacles for mom athletes. There is also a lack of supportive maternity policies for elite athletes who get pregnant that create a great deal of fear and uncertainty about their careers.

One issue is that pregnancy often isn't viewed as a normal part of life for an athlete. Canada's Athlete Assistance Program, for example, puts pregnancy in the same category as injury or illness, when it is neither. As Bill Moreau, managing director of sports medicine for the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2012 told NBC, "Pregnancy isn’t a disability.”

Female athletes are often afraid to share that they are pregnant.

Researchers at the University of Alberta conducted a study of what pregnant athletes go through and to determine what kind of policies might best support elite athletes going through the process of having a child. The study authors recruited 20 athletes who had trained or competed at the elite level just before becoming pregnant and talked with them about their experiences.

"They described the complexities related to planning for pregnancy when training," the authors shared in The Conversation. "They told us heartbreaking stories about how they were scared to disclose that they were pregnant over fear they would lose their position on the team, lose funding or even be viewed as less committed to their sport."

"This needs to change," they added.

One athlete in the study shared that there is a very narrow window in which athletes can get pregnant in an Olympic cycle to be successful. Another shared, "I feel like I can’t have open communication [with coaches] because I’m so afraid of what will be taken from me.”

"There's so little support and there's so little value given to pregnant athletes and to women who want to be able to be mothers and compete," study author and professor of kinesiology Tara-Leigh McHugh told the CBC. "We need to start to normalize and value pregnancy … to demonstrate that it is possible and women can actually succeed and thrive as mother athletes."

Plenty of athletes have had record-breaking performances during or after pregnancy. 

Pregnancy does change a woman's body, but the limitations it may impose are temporary.

Kenyan middle-distance runner Faith Kipyegon won the 1500 m gold medal in the 2017 London Olympics, then came back to the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and took the gold again—while also breaking the Olympic record for the event. In the four years between those Olympic wins, she had a baby. While she said returning to top athletic form was not easy after pregnancy and childbirth, the physical feat of building a baby clearly did not diminish her athletic abilities.

There have actually been athletes who have won Olympic medals while they were pregnant. And let's not forget Serena Williams winning her record-breaking 23rd grand slam while pregnant. Each sport has different physical demands that may or may not be affected by various stages of pregnancy, but an athlete shouldn't have to fear that having a baby will diminish their opportunities at best or cost them their career at worst.

Athletes face challenges in their field after having a baby as well, especially when rules are imposed without reasonable maternity exceptions. Canadian basketball player Kim Gaucher nearly had to forgo the Toyko Olympics because she was breastfeeding her 3-month-old and family members were not allowed to accompany athletes due to pandemic restrictions. She had to petition for an exception, which took until shortly before the games began to be approved.

Elite athletes need more supportive policies for maternity while training and competing.

The University of Alberta researchers shared recommendations that they said can be implemented immediately. "The development of maternity leave policies and funding structures for parental leave should be a priority for sporting organizations," they wrote. "Providing education to athletes, coaches and organizations about reproductive health should also occur in an effort to normalize pregnancy in sport, and work towards a more inclusive environment for female athletes."

One element of such policy is getting a better understanding, through research, of the impact of athletic training on pregnancy and vice versa.

"We don't have a lot of information about what is safe and beneficial for athletes who are regularly exceeding current recommendations," study co-author Maggie Davenport shared on CBC's Radio Active.

The researchers also pointed out that such policies are vital for young female athletes as they rise in their sports.

"Policies to support pregnant athletes will have a direct impact on all women and girls across all levels of sport," the study authors wrote. "Role models are essential to girls’ continued participation in sport. Young girls need to know that they belong in sport, and that there is a space for them in sport even when they enter their reproductive years."

Indeed, normalizing maternity in sports—and in every field—will open up more opportunities for women, letting them know they won't have to choose between creating a family and pursuing their professions.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
Family

A touching moment caught on the kiss cam—Orlando Magic fan finds out he's going to be a dad

Twitter

The kiss cam caught the real winner of the game.

What is it about those kiss cams at sports games that somehow manage to capture hysterical, bizarre and utterly embarrassing life moments? To think about how all the planets have to align for that to happen can be mind-boggling. Is it simply bad luck? Or is the kiss cam an instrument of karma itself? It’s a mystery yet to be solved…

But when that camera captures something truly heartwarming, it can connect us all to joy, even if that moment isn’t truly “ours.” They say both watching and playing a sport feels the same way in our brain, after all. Maybe that extends to everything that happens at the game.

One particularly epic story might be the MVP of kiss-cam history, as the crowd got to witness an Orlando Magic fan getting the surprise of a lifetime.

James Bailey didn’t yet know he was a father-to-be. His wife, Taylor Bailey, revealed to a local news outlet that she kept it secret, wanting to deliver the good news in a style.

“My husband has always dreamed of me telling him in a really cool way. So I thought it would be neat to get on the kiss cam,” she told WESH 2 News.

At first it’s all laughs and smiles, but when James finally reads the message, “Congrats James! You are going to be a dad!,” his jaw drops.

Eyes tearing up, he nuzzles his wife before shooting his hands up in a victory pose. It seems Taylor’s plan worked—it was indeed a very cool way to make her husband’s dreams come true.

The Orlando Magic tweeted the video along with the caption, “huge W”.

A VERY huge W. Congrats to the Bailey family, and thanks for sharing your happiness with the world.

Fingers crossed they name the baby Magic.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
kiss cam
Trending Stories