Strug participated in the 1996 Olympics as a member of the U.S. women's team, often referred to as the
Magnificent 7. After compulsories, Strug was ranked 9th overall and had placed high enough to qualify
herself for the all-around. She posted the second highest score on floor exercise — but qualified first in
floor exercise event finals after the team final and ahead of eventual FX Gold Medalist Lilia Podkopayeva
— and 4th highest on vault, which would qualify her for event finals in her two strongest events. In the
team competition, an event dominated by the Russians for decades and never won by the United States,
the U.S. competed with the Russian, Romanian, and Ukrainian teams. The Russians came into the team
competition with a very narrow lead. The event came down to the final rotation on the final day of the
team competition, July 23, 1996.After gemnastics!
fter graduation, Strug worked as an elementary school teacher in the San Francisco, Bay Area
before moving to Washington, D.C. in 2003. One of the schools she worked at was Tom
Matsumoto Elementary School.
She worked as a staff assistant with the U.S. Office of Presidential Student Correspondence,
moved to a job at the Office of the General Counsel in the Treasury Department, and in March
2005, joined the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
staff as a presidential appointee. Strug has also been an active marathon runner, having run
marathons in Houston, New York, Boston and Chicago.[8]
During the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Strug was a correspondent for Yahoo! in artistic
gymnastics. In 2008, she appeared in a television commercial for the Zaxby's restaurant chain.
Also in 2008, her history-making omarried to Robert Fischer at the Skyline Country Club in
Tucson, Arizona on 25 April 2010.[10]
Kerri Strug’s heroic performance at the 1996 Olympic Games ensured the United States’ first-ever Team
gold medal in Women’s Gymnastics. She was recipient of the 1996 Olympic Spirit Award.