Subscribe to the NCSA BlogGeorgia Gymnast Named Top Female College Athlete
June 24th, 2009 - bySenior Courtney Kupets, a female gymnast from the University of Georgia has been named the top female athlete in 2008-2009 according to an ESPN article.
She [Kupets] led Georgia to its fifth straight NCAA crown in April, amassing individual titles in the all-around, bars, beam and floor competition.
On Monday, Kupets won the Honda-Broderick Cup, given to the nation’s top female college athlete. She received the award at Columbia University.
“One person cannot win a team sport alone,” Kupets said. “It was because of the great team camaraderie.”
In 2003, Kupets tore her left Achilles tendon, but recovered in time to compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics. On the world stage, she won the Olympic silver medal in the team all-around and captured individual bronze in the uneven bars.
In her junior year, Kupets tore her other Achilles tendon while performing the floor routine and needed surgery in March 2008. She gained strength from her older sister, Ashley, who also competed in gymnastics despite numerous injuries.
At the NCAA championships in Lincoln, Neb., Kupets’ four titles in April tied the record for a single
national meet. She earned three 10s the first two days of the meet and came close to another one on the balance beam.
Coupled with a win in the vault in 2007, Kupets became the first gymnast to win a national title in each event. She clinched it by winning the floor exercise.
Kupets ended her career with a record nine individual titles in just three seasons, beating the mark of eight by Kentucky’s Jenny Hansen over four seasons in 1995.
Kupets is talented in the classroom as well, where she’s majoring in housing and consumer economics. She won Georgia’s Marilyn Vincent Award as the senior female athlete with the highest GPA (3.78).
Congrats to Courtney, she is an example that with enough hard work and dedication, anyone can achieve their athletic goals despite adversity.
