Courtney Kupets

Courtney Anne Kupets Carter (born July 27, 1986) is an American former artistic gymnast.

Kupets began gymnastics in 1989, earned a place on USA Gymnastics' TOPs developmental team in 1994, and reached the elite level in 1999.

At her first U.S. National Championships in 1999, she placed eighth in the junior division and became a member of the junior national team.

In 2002, her first year as a senior competitor, Kupets placed second at the American Cup, behind 2000 Olympian Tasha Schwikert, and placed eighth at Nationals.

She was named to the U.S. team for the 2002 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, where she won the uneven bars final over five-time defending champion Svetlana Khorkina.

It was the first 10.00 on the bars for Georgia since 2002 and the first of Kupets' career.

Her bar routine featured a toe-on Tkatchev (Ray) to immediate bail and is considered one of the most difficult bar routines ever attempted in NCAA competition.

She is also a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the 2003 World Championships.

In 2003, Kupets won the U.S. Classic and then became the national champion for the first time.

She was named to the U.S. team for the 2003 World Championships in Anaheim, California, and competed well in the qualifying round, contributing to the USA's high placement and qualifying to the all-around and uneven bars finals.

However, during a practice session before the team finals, she tore her left Achilles tendon on a double Arabian somersault and was forced to withdraw from the event, returning home to Maryland immediately for surgery.

The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.

Kupets was still considered a member of the squad and received credit and a medal for her contributions in the preliminaries.

She is a two-time Olympic medalist from the 2004 Olympics (silver in the team competition, bronze on uneven bars), the 2002 world champion on the uneven bars, the 2003 U.S. national all-around champion, and the 2004 U.S. national all-around co-champion (with Carly Patterson).

After the 2004 Olympics, she competed for the University of Georgia (UGA) where she was a member of Alpha Omicron Pi women's fraternity, joining her older sister, Ashley Kupets.

In 2004, Kupets became co-national champion with Patterson.

A few weeks later, she placed first at the Olympic Trials, earning a spot on the Olympic team.

At the Olympics in Athens, the U.S. women won a silver medal.

Kupets was expected to compete on bars, beam and floor in the team final; but a leg injury (later discovered to be a stress fracture in her hip) caused her to be suddenly withdrawn from the beam lineup.

Mohini Bhardwaj took her place on the event, and Kupets competed only on bars and floor in the team final.

She received the team's highest score on bars (9.662), putting the U.S. temporarily ahead of eventual winner Romania in the standings.

But she also received the lowest score on floor exercise (9.187) after faltering on a dance combination while trying to turn on the opposite leg from the one she normally used.

Kupets competed in the individual all-around after placing fourth, with a total score of 37.937, in the qualifying round.

In the final, she finished ninth with a total of 37.112 after stepping out of bounds on floor exercise and nearly falling on beam.

However, she won the bronze medal in the uneven bars final with a score of 9.637, behind Émilie Le Pennec of France (9.687) and fellow American Terin Humphrey (9.662).

She finished fifth in the balance beam final with a score of 9.375.

After returning from Athens, Kupets traveled across the United States with other gymnasts on an exhibition tour sponsored by T.J. Maxx.

In 2005, Kupets joined the University of Georgia gymnastics team on a full athletic scholarship.

During her time at the University of Georgia, the Georgia women's gymnastics team won four straight NCAA national championships from 2006 to 2009.

In her first season, she was named SEC freshman of the year and she contributed to the team's first-place finish at the 2006 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships and won the all-around, bars, and beam titles.

During the 2007 season, she received a 10.00 on the uneven bars while competing against the University of Alabama.

At the 2007 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships, Kupets tied teammate Katie Heenan for the all-around gold with a total of 39.600, and earned the vault and bars titles with scores of 9.975 and 9.925, respectively.

In the team competition, Georgia lost to the University of Florida after winning the conference title for the previous three years.

After this, Kupets led the team to the North Central Regional title and won the all-around despite the distraction of her older sister, Ashley Kupets, tearing her Achilles tendon during the warmup for floor exercise.

Two weeks later, Georgia upset Florida to win the preliminary session at Nationals.

Kupets scored 39.75 on Day 1, with a 9.9 on beam and 9.95 on bars, floor, and vault, earning her second consecutive NCAA all-around title.

In the Super 6 finals, Georgia totaled 197.85 and earned a third-consecutive NCAA team championship, the team's eighth overall.

During the 2009–10 season, Kupets was a student assistant coach to the team's new head coach, Jay Clark.

On May 9, 2017, Kupets-Carter was announced as the new head coach of the Georgia Gym Dogs.

Kupets was raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and trained at Hill's Gymnastics, the former gym of Olympians Dominique Dawes and Elise Ray.