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Cheryl Miller’s cartwheel in front of Pat Summitt put 1984 Olympic hopes in peril

When Tennessee coach Pat Summitt lost her NCAA Championship Game debut in 1984 to USC, then-Trojans star Cheryl Miller did a cartwheel in celebration. Right in front of Summitt.

Summitt, then still known to Miller as Pat Head, would be the coach of the to-be-named Olympic team that summer.

The cartwheel might have been a mistake.

“My teammates were like, ‘You’re not going to make the Olympic team, you just did a cartwheel in front of Pat Head!'” Miller said in a phone interview Tuesday. “You just committed Olympic suicide right there.