Landing on One Foot

The Georgia Dome roared with 32,000 voices on July 23, 1996, as eighteen-year-old Kerri Strug stood at the end of the vault runway in Atlanta. Moments earlier, her first attempt had gone wrong — she under-rotated her landing and crumpled to the mat, pain searing through her left ankle. Two torn ligaments. The U.S. women's gymnastics team, later dubbed the Magnificent Seven, believed the team gold medal hung on this final vault.

Coach Bela Karolyi leaned close. "You can do it, Kerri." She nodded, shook out her hands, and sprinted down the runway on an ankle that could barely hold her weight. She hit the springboard, launched into a Yurchenko one-and-a-half twist, and landed — planting both feet for one brief, agonizing moment before lifting her injured leg and balancing on one foot. She saluted the judges, then collapsed. The scoreboard flashed 9.712. Gold.

Kerri did not vault on raw grit alone. She drew on years of training, the trust of her teammates, and a strength that carried her beyond what her body could provide in that moment.

Paul understood that kind of strength. Writing from a Roman prison, he declared, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). He was not boasting in willpower. He was testifying that when our own reserves run dry, God supplies what we lack. Courage is not the absence of pain — it is stepping onto the runway anyway, trusting that the One who calls you will hold you up, even if only on one foot.