Miller, Chow, and Dawes also won an individual gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively in Atlanta.

The leader of the Magnificent Seven is often said to be Shannon Miller, the second most decorated American gymnast in history and that year's reigning national champion.

[2] [citation needed] The highest two scoring athletes on the team during the compulsories did not even perform at the Olympic Trials.

Ultimately, Ukraine, not China, earned this fourth spot along with the United States, Russia, and Romania.

Following uneven bars, the team moved to the balance beam where Strug led off with a shaky performance.

Phelps, who won the compulsory round at the Olympic Trials (although neither Miller or Moceanu competed at this event), was next.

Although known for her beautiful technique, she looked shaky from the start of the routine and fell off the beam during the fouette jump element.

Moceanu anchored the United States and with only minor errors and impeccable form on certain elements earned a 9.687.

As the event took place in Atlanta, the crowd was heavily pro-United States, and the cheering and flash photography was at an unprecedented level.

The crowd continued to cheer on its team as the group moved to the floor exercise where Phelps led off with a great start.

As predicted, Moceanu's floor music, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," was a smash hit with the already raucous crowd.

Following Dawes was Miller who showed the first obvious error in any of the American routines when she under-rotated her opening tumbling pass, a double layout.

Although a major break, Miller avoided touching the floor with her hands, finished strongly, and the team ultimately dropped her score of 9.618.

Dawes, who posted the team's high optionals floor exercise score of 9.850, would have qualified seventh to the event finals but because of the rule that only two gymnasts from each country can compete, she was to be left out.

As it was unknown to the team that they had already secured the gold medal, Strug was encouraged by her coach, Béla Károlyi, to vault again.

The secondary story, often overlooked by the public, is that both Strug and Moceanu were in a tight contest with each other and with Dawes to qualify to the individual All-Around competition.

Only three gymnasts per country could advance to the All-Around final, and had Strug not vaulted again, she would have finished fourth behind Miller, Dawes, and Moceanu.

Strug walked around, trying to shake off the injury to her ankle, as she headed back to the start of the vaulting runway with Karolyi's and her teammates' encouragement.

She performed the second vault well and nearly stuck the landing, however, she immediately lifted her injured leg and collapsed in pain, needing to be carried off the podium.

Because of being whisked away from the team and the thick bandage on her leg, Strug didn't have time to put the pants of her warm-up suit on and thus was the only one not wearing them.

*Strug qualified to the all-around, vault, and floor finals, but did not participate in any due to injuring her ankle during Team Optionals.

World champion Lilia Podkopayeva took the title and the gold, while the three Romanians took revenge for their disappointing team bronze by sweeping the other medals (Gina Gogean won silver, and Simona Amânar and Lavinia Miloşovici tied for bronze).

On day one of the event finals on vault, both Shannon Miller (subbing for an injured Kerri Strug) and Dominique Dawes competed.

Strug achieved the highest qualifying score in the floor exercise, but as with other individual events, had to withdraw.

Strug, however, elected not to join the other six members and instead headlined a rival tour for considerably higher compensation than the other six.

Miller, once again the most successful member of the team following her five medal total in the Barcelona Games, captured the only individual gold for the American women.