Vaulting into a new life

Olympic gold medalist reflects on experiences

Friday, July 4, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GARY SMITH Olympic gold medalist Kerri Strug, right, coaches Rachel Shogren during a session on the balance beam during her visit Monday. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

That of an injured 18-year-old girl landing one-footed with her arms raised upward after completing a vault in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta that assured the United States its first women’s team gold medal in gymnastics.

It was a feat that epitomized courage and desire, as Strug chose to vault for a second time, immediately after falling on her first attempt and tearing ligaments in her left ankle. It catapulted the gymnast into celebrity status, as she appeared on the cover of ‘‘Sports Illustrated” and Wheaties.

She did late-night shows and met President Bill Clinton.

But 12 years removed from one the most memorable, inspirational moments in Olympic history, Strug, like many former Olympians, has had to adapt to life after Olympic glory.

‘‘Gymnastics will always be a part of me; it was clearly the highlight of my life,” said Strug, who visited the Olympia Gymnastics Camp at Unique Sports Academy in Waldorf on Monday. ‘‘And I want to embrace that and take it for what it’s worth, but at the same time, that highlight came when I was 18. Life keeps moving forward, and I can’t live off of that for the rest of my life.”

Olympic-caliber gymnasts like Strug train their entire lives for a chance to reach the pinnacle of their careers before their early-20s. They become robotic in their technique and consumed with achieving one specific goal.

Before winning gold in 1996, Strug spent 12 years away from home training with renowned coaches, living on strict diets, and missing out on the pastimes of a normal childhood.

‘‘Now that I am outside the sport, I have a very different perspective than when I was in,” Strug said. ‘‘When I was there, anything less [than first place] would have been unacceptable. Whereas now I look back and I was hurt, and I realize that not everybody wins and mistakes happen.”

Elite gymnasts make the sacrifices with the knowledge that their window of opportunity is incredibly limited.

Svetlana Boginskaya, a former Olympian and gold medalist for the Soviet and Russian teams in 1988 and 1992 who directed the camp in Waldorf, was urged to end her career at the age of 19.

‘‘Back then, in the early 90s, you didn’t see many women age 19 competing in the Olympics,” Boginskaya said. ‘‘In 1992, I was the oldest one competing at age 19; I didn’t feel old. But I guess it got into my head, and everyone told me that I should retire so that the 15-year-olds could step up.”

After the Olympics, and as her level of fame started to decrease over time, Strug began to adjust to life after gymnastics.

‘‘I think a lot of Olympians have a really difficult time with that,” Strug said. ‘‘Of course I wanted to win a medal, but as my father told me, that was all extra. There are certain expectations that I had out of life. You know that if you win a gold medal that it would be great with the sponsorships and tours, but then you have to go forward. In some regards, it is unfortunate that our window of opportunity is so short, but on another level, it is good, because it forces you to think about your future.”

Strug’s transition came in 1998, when she enrolled at Stanford University after two years at UCLA, where she remained active in gymnastics and lived anything but the normal college lifestyle.

‘‘I was embracing everything that came my way, but it seemed kind of surreal,” Strug said. ‘‘I had basically grown up in a bubble. I had never gone to my friend’s birthdays, but I was going to the President’s. It was all different, but I knew that it wasn’t going to last forever.”

At Stanford, Strug had to go through the admissions process and live on campus as a regular transfer student. She even enrolled in Gymnastics 101 as a way of staying in shape.

‘‘I don’t think I could have gone cold feet as a normal student with no athletics, but it was important for me to say enough is enough; I am no longer a collegiate athlete. I wanted to focus on academics and my social life, because I was behind in both of them.”

After graduating from Stanford in 2000, Strug became a schoolteacher. She now works in Washington D.C. as a program manager investigating nonprofit organizations for the Justice Department.

‘‘I have a cubicle just like everybody else,” Strug said. ‘‘My sister came to visit me and couldn’t believe that this is where I worked everyday. She thought that I wasn’t the average government employee that took the Metro and sat in front of a computer screen in a little cube in the middle of a big floor. But for me, there is comfort in the normalcy.”

Strug breaks up the monotony of government work by visiting gymnastics camps and by working with Olympic sponsors every four years.

‘‘I kind of have my cake and eat it, too. During the week, nobody knows or cares who I am, and I do my own thing,” Strug said. ‘‘But then I can be a celebrity-type figure when I go to little gym clubs like this or attend an event for Bank of America. That’s become the norm for me, and I enjoy it.”

While working with aspiring gymnasts at summer camps, Strug shows her students the proper form and technique on the balance beam and parallel bars. She also tries to impress upon camp goers the lessons that extend beyond the sport.

‘‘You have to take those skills you learned in gymnastics in terms of dedication, perseverance, patience and focus and apply them to your career, family, and whatever comes after gymnastics,” Strug said.

But even more impressive a lesson for young gymnasts is a chance to witness how an Olympic gold medalist has handled her fame and success with grace and maturity.

‘‘I do want to have other accomplishments that might seem average, but graduating from Stanford was just as big of a deal for me as the gold medal,” Strug said. ‘‘It was a big challenge, but it was something I wanted to do. I want to get married and have children. There are certain milestones in life, and you have to embrace them. They may seem normal to other people in comparison to a gold medal, but to me they are just as important.”