MOMENTS THAT SHAPED OLYMPIC HISTORY

In 1996, Kerri Strug stepped up to the vault for the last round of the gymnastics all-around for Team USA. She was a vault specialist and her team was depending on her to help bring home the gold medal. Her team had a narrow lead over Romania and Russia and they were on the path to victory, but suddenly tragedy struck. Kerri badly injured her ankle during her very first vault! After checking with her coach, she summoned all of her courage and decided to go ahead with her final vault—her team had a narrow lead and it all came down to her. One small misstep and all could be lost. She ran to the vault, ankle throbbing and, despite her injury, stuck a perfect landing. Hopping on one foot, she patiently waited for the judges as her team and coach huddled around her. The scoreboard lit up: 9.712—an incredible score! Even with a badly injured ankle, Kerri Strug helped catapult Team USA onto the Olympic podium and took home gold

When Eric Moussambani arrived at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, it was the first time anyone from his home country of Equatorial Guinea had ever competed. In fact, Eric himself had never left his home town until this moment and he had never even heard of Australia. Eric only had twelve months to prepare for the Olympic Games and trained in a 20-meter pool by himself for three hours a week. When he arrived in Sydney, he was told that he would be competing in the 100-meter freestyle, even though Eric had only trained to swim a 50-meter race. When it came time to race, his fellow competitors were disqualified and he swam the whole race by himself. It was a grueling 100 meters. With each stroke, he felt himself getting more exhausted, unsure if he would be able to finish. As he continued to swim, the crowd began to roar with applause. He felt the world watching him and pushed on, stroke by stroke. Although Eric didn’t qualify for the Olympic finals, his story and his perseverance inspired the world.

Snowboarder Shaun White, or “The Flying Tomato,” is a Winter Olympics legend. By the time he was 23 years old, he had already won a gold medal for halfpipe at the 2006 Olympics. When he returned for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, Shaun was ready to make history. During his first run on the halfpipe, he earned an impressive 46.8 out of a possible 50 points, but it was his second and final run that would shock the world of snowboarding. With his red hair flying like a cape behind him, he glided up and down the halfpipe with grace and ease—making his movements appear effortless. Already in first place, Shaun had nothing to prove. He was already the best of the best, but he had one more trick up his sleeve. With an incredible burst of energy, he completed the most technical and difficult trick the judges had ever seen—a double McTwist 1260, a move he nicknamed “The Tomahawk.” The crowd stood, stunned in amazement, then burst into applause and cheers, knowing that history had just been made. The judges awarded him a score of 48.4 and Shaun took home his second Olympic gold medal.

At her first Olympics, Nadia Comăneci was 14 years old, 4 feet 11 inches tall, and weighed only 86 pounds. She had trained in her home country of Romania under Béla Károlyi, one of gymnastics’ most successful coaches. She was already a four-time gold medalist following the 1975 European Open Championships. Then, the following year, at the Montreal Olympics, Comăneci shocked the world of gymnastics with one of the most technically difficult and flawless routines on the uneven bars. She leapt onto the bars and proceeded to glide through the air—leaping and spinning from one set of bars to the other as if being held up by air. The crowd sat in complete silence and finally let out a gasp as she dismounted perfectly. “Faultless! Absolutely faultless!” news announcers cried. The judges were shocked and did not know what to do because the scoreboard was only able to display a maximum number of 9.99, not a perfect 10.00. Adrenaline pulsing, Comăneci looked at the scoreboard in utter dismay. The score read 1.00. In reality, Comăneci had been awarded the first score of 10.00 in the history of Olympic gymnastics!

When Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce qualified for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, she was 21 years old and stood at 5 feet 3 inches tall. She quickly rose to fame when she became the first Jamaican woman to win a gold medal in the 100-meter sprint, but that wasn’t all she had to offer the world—she knew she could do better. At the 2012 Olympics in London, she took her mark with the eyes of the world focused on her. She heard the signal and broke out into a sprint, her brightly-colored hair whipping past her shoulders. Her breath was steady as her feet hit the ground with cheetah-like speed. The finish line quickly approached and then, suddenly, she was past it, with her competitors several seconds behind her. Without knowing it right away, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had just set a world record of 10.7 seconds for the 100-meter sprint. She proceeded to win her second gold and became the third woman in history to defend a 100-meter Olympic title. She continued to defend her legacy at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow when she became the first woman to win three gold medals for the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 4x100-meter relay races and proved to everyone that she wasn’t just fast, but the fastest woman in the world.

Derek Redmond’s Olympic journey is one that was plagued by misfortune. He was already a world-champion gold medalist when he qualified for the 1988 Olympics, but fate had other plans. He was forced to walk away from his first Olympic race due to an injury, and, after several surgeries, Redmond was back and better than ever. He was determined to make his Olympic dreams come true. He was a key member of Britain’s relay team at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo where they ran the second fastest 4x400-meter relay in history. Now, he had made it to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and was ready to secure his Olympic title. Just 250 meters into the 400-meter semi-final, Redmond felt a pain in his hamstring, and then, the pain suddenly increased until it was unbearable. Suddenly, Redmond found himself on the ground gripping his leg in pain. He knew what had happened—his hamstring had torn. With tears streaming from his eyes and the agony of the pain pulsing through his leg, Redmond took one limping step forward, then another. Suddenly, Redmond felt someone holding him up—it was his father, Jim. Sobbing, Redmond, with the help of his father, crossed the finish line. The crowd stood in applause and marveled at Derek Redmond’s perseverance and strength to carry on with the help of his father.

The 1980 Winter Olympics occurred during the Cold War, and Team USA was eager to end Soviet domination on the ice rink. The Soviet team already had four gold medals to their name, while the US team was mostly made up of college hockey players from Minnesota and Massachusetts. While the US team was promising, most people didn’t think they stood a chance next to the Soviets. In front of a sold out stadium, the whistle blew and the game began. The Soviets had the lead 2-1 and seemed to have the upper hand against the scrappy US team. With moments to spare in the first period, the US scored a goal, leaving the game tied. The second half of the game was certainly intense with goalies throwing themselves in front of the goals and hockey sticks whipping the puck from one player to another with alarming speed. Back and forth the scoreboard went, with the Soviets in the lead, then the US team a second later. After an intense second half that left spectators on the edge of their seats, the amateur US team did the seemingly impossible and took the lead in the last 10 minutes, winning Olympic gold in a moment that has forever been remembered as the “Miracle on Ice.”