Little Kerri Strug - who weighs a bit more than the average golden retriever but has a heart as big as a bus - vaulted into history despite a badly sprained ankle.
Bela Karolyi - who, according to some media whiners is more like one of Bela Lugosi's monsters than a gym coach - carried his petite champion in his arms after she collapsed on the mat.
The performance set off a riot of national handwringing by the politically correct crowd.
One national columnist and commentator actually referred to the gymnasts as "those creatures."
I get the feeling she would have been happier if we chose our athletes based on national demographics reflecting all women, not just those willing to commit their life to training and who have the body type it takes to fly through the air, do flips and land back on their feet again. Sure, we wouldn't win any medals, but at least we could be proud that our team represents the vast herd of mediocrity that roams our country. And none of the quota babies would be humiliated by some little overachiever who is willing to soar above a pommel horse and deliberately land on an injured leg. What was she trying to prove anyway? The little show-off.
That's where we are. We feel guilty sending our best to compete with the best of the rest of the world. But only in those sports where we are the best. We invented basketball. We have the best basketball players in the world. Therefore, we should send a bunch of second-rate players to compete in international competition because the Dream Team is just too damn good.
Our gymnasts practice just too much simply to try to win medals. Why, they PRACTICE eight hours a day! Bela yells at them. They don't pig out at McDonald's like real Americans do. They have no lives other than gymnastics. There's something wrong with such commitment to one goal. They are abused. They are creatures.
And what if they don't win after making such a commitment? They will be psychologically devastated. For the rest of their lives they will be angry bulimic little butterballs.
THAT'S where we are. It doesn't matter that Kerri Strug had devoted most of her young life to becoming a gymnastics champion. She knew she wasn't the best, even on the American team. But she hung in there, a child of destiny waiting in the wings. And finally the curtains opened up for her and it was her turn to shine. A sprained ankle? You would have had to cut off her leg to try to keep her from doing that last vault and then she would have done it anyway.
It was a sprained ankle, folks. Nobody asked her to take a bullet or throw herself in front of a train or fly out of John F. Kennedy Airport with a black box in her lap.
Another charge by the PC police is that the entire women's gymnastics program is anti-woman because only girls the size of gnats get to compete. This is just silly. Would they say that the basketball program is anti-male because only guys the size of Lurch get to play? The nature of each sport determines the size and shape of the athletes. Guys and girls who swim the butterfly have the wingspan of a 747. That's because athletes with long arms can swim faster.
Damn that gravity, but it's a basic law of physics that little women are able to spend more time in the air spinning and flipping than those the size of Shelley Winters.
Big, mean basketball players, tiny women gymnasts, swimmers whose knuckles drag on the ground - this is what it takes to win.
I'm proud of Kerri Strug. She's one of the strongest people I've ever seen. I will never forget her courage to be the best.
