Magnificent Seven (Gymnastics)
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The Magnificent Seven is the 1996 U.S. Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team which won the first ever Gold Medal for the United States in the Women's Team Competition at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The seven members of the team were Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, Dominique Moceanu, Kerri Strug, Amy Chow, Amanda Borden and Jaycie Phelps.
The accomplishment was considered phenomenal due to the fact that the Soviet Union had won every Olympics it had entered since the 1950s. Furthermore, the United States had never won the Olympics - or the World Championships. Yet, in Atlanta, they fielded the deepest U.S. team in history and upstaged both the Russians and the reigning 2 Time World Champion Romanians.
The leader of the Magnificent is largely considered to be Shannon Miller, as she is by far the most accomplished American gymnast in history. The other two individual stars on the team were Dominique Dawes and Dominique Moceanu. Yet, Kerri Strug qualified for the All-Around over Moceanu when Moceanu fell on both of her vaults as the second to last gymnast to perform. Moments later, Strug fell on her first vault, injuring her ankle, and in the most enduring moment of the Games, she vaulted again, landed, collapsed, and had to be carried off the podium. The vault assured Kerri a place in the All-Around, but she was unable to compete due to the injury.
The other three members on the team were less heralded. Nevertheless they were an integral part of the team's success. Amy Chow had the most difficulty of anyone on the team. Jaycie Phelps provided clean lines and solid gymnastics on all four events. And the final member to qualify for the team, Amanda Borden, was named Team Captain due to her vivacious personality.
The Magnificent Seven went on tour after their gold medal performance. Strug, however, with her new-found stardom, elected not to join the other six members, but rather to perform on another tour in which she was offered more money.
The entire team appeared on the Wheaties Box and on several talk shows. Miller, once again the most successful member of the team following her 5 medal total in the Barcelona Games, captured the only individual gold for the American women. Her gold medal on the balance beam was a first for an American, and to this day, she remains the only American to ever win the balance beam at the Olympics.
Amy Chow won silver on the un-even bars, and Dominique Dawes won bronze on the floor exercise.
Interesting note on the team: The highest two scoring athletes on the team during the compulsories did not even perform at Olympic Trials. Both Miller and Moceanu had been sidelined with injury, but were named to the team anyway, proving that the petition-system was in the team's best interest. Without Miller and Moceanu, the team would have missed the gold.
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