The Woman Behind Team USA's First Gold Medal in Sixteen Years

Jul 31, 2012 by Anne Phillips

Eleven years after taking over as USA women's National Team Coordinator, Martha Karolyi constructed what she calls the best U.S. team in history.

Tonight in London, the young American girls left all other teams in the dust during the women's team final, winning the Olympic gold medal for the first time since 1996. The U.S.A. started with an incredible vaulting rotation and ended their competition with a total of 183.596, overtaking second-place Russia by more than five points.

Moments after her team secured their first Olympic gold medal in sixteen years, Karolyi reflected back on the road getting to this victorious moment:

"It is the result of a system that we put in place starting in… about 1998. And the beginnings were extremely hard and there were some skeptical opinions about it. But as the years went, we began to get the confidence of the people and the confidence of the coaches. And by earning more recognition internationally, we definitely earned the trust of the coaches."

How gratifying is this for you?

I am overwhelmed! I couldn't hold back my tears. Its just, you work and work and work, and you have some good days and you have some harder days and, actually, yesterday we had a workout that wasn't fantastic! But I told the girls after yesterday's workout, I know it's hard to get up after a good day because qualification they gave it all, so then it's very hard mentally. I said, don't think you're not prepared. We did all this work throughout the years.

They were very tough out there. They hit all twelve routines...

Absolutely. They didn't struggle. They are very well prepared physically. We really used a tactical preparation plan. We wanted to do our hardest work in the first part of the year and then narrow it down to the Championships, (Olympic) Trials, and all the way through to the preparation here to lower the numbers of routines because we already were ready. So all that we needed to do here was maintain that level of preparation.

You were the obvious favorites in the competition. What's it like to finally win Team Gold in the Olympics?

"Overwhelming and certainly we had this in our mind. We never spelled it out because you can't, you don't know exactly. We always said we were fighting for a place on the podium. but certainly you'd like to get on the highest point of the podium, and it happened. The result is the result of a team effort - with all the coaches and all the girls spending more time together, training together, being able to build up strategies."

When did you know they had it?

"When the beam was over I had a feeling that we have the medal in our hands. We just have to go through the floor routines, and possibly with even smaller mistakes we'd still have it."

How important was it for the team to begin like they did on vault?

"I think the vault was very good. I don't think the scores reflected the difference between us and other countries. I absolutely feel like McKayla Maroney's vault is like a different class, actually, and to recognize that I would expect at one point they would give a 10.0 execution score for that. That was the best! That would definitely deserve a 10.0 just to make the statement that she is so much better than anyone else. "

Did you have any doubt about Jordyn Wieber coming back today after her emotional day during prelims?

I really was hoping that her strong character would kick in, and I was right. If we doubt that then we would not put her in the lineup. We had a lineup meeting yesterday. We had discussions. We went back and forth, who is the best, and we all felt like her character will come through and she will be able to pass the disappointment and be able to do this for the team.

Did you have a talk with her?

Yes, but just briefly. She doesn't like big talks (laughs). She is very determined herself. We just mentioned, this will be a good day, Jordyn. You have to prove that you are a high class gymnast. Certainly, she wanted to do that. She's a fighter. If she has a situation that puts her down she's able to fight back.

What was the difference between Team USA and the other countries tonight?

I think they (other top teams) had some problems of confidence level. We really stressed this year on the mental preparation. We put the girls in a situation where we mimic how we compete and what we have to do. And to put extra pressure in the training. You do a good routine, it doesn't matter. You have to do ONE specific good routine when I'm saying that routine counts. We all do that preparation with them. And more of those training sessions build the confidence level and they KNOW they can do it. So this way, they don't have so much pressure when they're out there.

Is this the best U.S. team ever?

I would say, it should be the best one. 1996 was in the U.S., and this one on foreign grounds.

Don't expect Karolyi to relish in this victory for too long, though. She immediately turned the conversation back to what got them here - hard work.

"It's a fantastic achievement but at the same time we don't need to get our nose up, because you are just as good as your performance today. So everyone needs to know that this is the result of very hard work through many, many years and if we want to stay competitive we have to continue with the same level. Don't assume that because now we are olympic champions that we can relax.