News of Kerri Strug biopic generates concern — Oklahoma debuts documentary

One of the most enduring gymnastics myths of all time is the belief that retired gymnast Kerri Strug needed to vault on an injured leg in order for the United States to have a chance at winning team gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. 

One of the longest-rumored sports movies of all time is a biopic of Kerri Strug. 

And finally, now, we have a movie about Kerri Strug that gym fans hope will clear up the myth about Strug’s final vault in the Atlanta team competition — but we’re not holding our collective breath. 

Want women’s hockey content? Subscribe to The Ice Garden!
The IX Sports is collaborating with The Ice Garden to bring you Hockey Friday. And if you want the women’s hockey goodness 24/7? Well, you should subscribe to The Ice Garden now!

Deadline broke the news Wednesday about the upcoming movie Perfect, which will star Millie Bobby Brown as Strug. Gia Coppola will direct the film. Netflix is reportedly negotiating to stream the finished product. 

Gymfans on Reddit immediately expressed skepticism about the project, with many saying they didn’t think the movie would give the full story behind the scenes of Strug’s vault, nor the allegedly abusive coaching that she was exposed to as she trained under the notorious Bela and Marta Karolyi. 

Many cited I, Tonya, the 2017 flick about Tonya Harding’s figure skating career (including that time her boyfriend hired someone to whack Harding’s competitor Nancy Kerrigan in the kneecap with a pipe) as something the Perfect filmmakers should aspire to. I, Tonya presented Harding in a somewhat sympathetic light, giving viewers a glimpse of what her life was like off the ice, but didn’t pull punches in its depiction of her as her sport’s resident bad girl of the 90s. 

A movie about Strug developed in 2025 and produced, presumably, to gin up interest in the 2028 Olympics, should necessarily include some detail about the difference between the Karolyis’ reputation in 1996 and what it became 20 years later, after the Larry Nassar scandal. Strug’s vault should not be presented as a one-dimensional feat that made the difference between gold and silver, but rather as what I assume was a calculated decision based on the information at hand that ultimately ended a career in the sport but created a household name and image around Strug. If we are only fed the same story that commentary of the time fed us — that Strug had no choice but to compete her second vault, that glory lay on the line, that she alone could give America a gold medal — we’ll be sorely disappointed. 

Other gym news

The Gymternet posted a nominative roster for the women’s competition at worlds. 

College Gym News brings us a Judge’s Inquiry column about switch-side straddle full leaps.

U.S. World Trials will be broadcast on USA Gymnastics’s Flip Now on Tuesday, Sept. 30, and Wednesday, Oct. 1. 

Five at The IX: Oklahoma documentary

The Oklahoma gymnastic team celebrates with the trophy after they finish in first place in the 2025 Women’s National Gymnastics Championship at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 19, 2025. (Photo credit: Jerome Miron | Imagn Images)

Watch this three-part documentary about the 2025 Oklahoma women’s team, which fought back from not making the national final last year to taking the national title in April.