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.…