Named to the honor roll at Rockville’s Magruder High School in March.
And the subject of her own Sports Illustrated for Kids sports card this
month.
So, what do you do for an encore, Courtney Kupets?
The 17-year-old gymnast grins. “I don’t know. It’s all pretty cool,” she
says.
Kupets, the 2003 national all-around champion, has been in intense
rehabilitation since tearing her Achilles’ tendon last August at the world
championships.
Just before Easter, Kupets and other elite gymnasts went to a monthly
training program at Bela and Martha Karolyi’s ranch outside Houston. Kupets
passed her physical ability test and performed half of the routines she’ll use
at the national championships June 2-5 and the U.S. Olympic trials later that
month.
“Courtney’s 100 percent,” says her coach, Kelli Hill. “If the surgery went
well – and it did – we knew she’d be right here. Her physical therapy went
really well, and she has worked her tail off.”
Kupets most likely will compete on the uneven bars and beam on May 14-16 at
the U.S. Classic in Rochester, N.Y. Immediately afterward, she will perform in
all four events (adding the floor exercise and vault) at an international
invitational at the Karoyli ranch.
“I’m doing all my skills, and now I’m working on putting them all in one
routine,” says Kupets, the 2002 uneven bars world champion. “I’m getting my
confidence back in every skill. When you come back, that takes time.”
And time, which once seemed to be working against Kupets after her injury,
seems to have cut her a break.
By not suffering any setbacks, Hill says her young charge was able to
maintain focus and build confidence.
“As long as it comes together in June,” says Hill, smiling. “No problem. No
pressure.”
Marathon preview
If you’re looking for members of the U.S. Olympic squad at tomorrow’s 108th
running of the Boston Marathon, you’ll be disappointed. On the other hand, if
it’s a look at their Summer Games competition you want, this is the place.
The world’s oldest annual marathon has attracted a field of more than
20,000, including an elite class of 29 male and female athletes – none of whom
is American.
The U.S. team picked its marathoners at trials in February and March, and
those athletes were unwilling to disrupt training or risk injury to compete.
The race will feature 2003 champion Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (2 hours, 10
minutes, 11 seconds) and two-time winner Catherine Ndereba, who will be
competing in Athens. Both are from Kenya.
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Cheruiyot will be challenged by countrymen Benjamin Kosgei Kimutai and
Martin Lel, who finished in second and third place last year. Lel is an
alternate on the Kenya Olympic squad.
Ndereba, the second-fastest woman in the history of the distance and the
2000 and 2001 winner in Boston, will be challenged by Lyubov Denisova, a
Russian who finished second in Boston last year, and two-time Olympian Jelena
Prokopcuka of Latvia. Last year’s winner, Svetlana Zakharova of Russia
(2:25:20), did not enter.
For the first time, the women will leave the starting line in Hopkinton 29
minutes in front of the men’s elite field and thousands of recreational
runners.
According to Boston Athletic Association officials, only four athletes have
won the Boston Marathon and an Olympic gold medal: Portugal’s Rosa Mota, Joan
Benoit Samuelson of the United States, Ethiopia’s Fatuma Roba and the only
male double winner, Gelindo Bordin of Italy.
Strong sailing effort
As a confidence builder, the first European regatta for Carol Cronin and
Anne Arundel County residents Liz Filter and Nancy Haberland was just what the
doctor ordered.
The three sailors finished eighth out of 30 entries in the Yngling class
during the five-day HRH Princess Sofia Trophy event, held in Spain’s Bay of
Palma.
The women had never sailed in the bay just south of Barcelona and say it
took some getting used to. But after a ragged beginning, when the first race
started without them, they logged two first-place and two second-place
finishes in the 12-race competition.
“[We] achieved our goal of checking our progress against the Europeans,”
says skipper Cronin, of Jamestown, R.I. “We now know what we need to work on
between now and the games in Athens. “
The regatta was won by the team from the Netherlands, followed by New
Zealand and Germany.
More than 600 boats representing 50 nations participated in the event,
despite the cancellation of the Mistral, 49er and Star classes because of
scheduling conflicts with other international sailing events.
Cronin, Filter and Haberland will compete in the Semaine Olympique in
Hyres, France, from April 23-30 and then take part in the Women’s Worlds from
May 7-15 in Santander, Spain.
Games at a glance
When: Aug. 13-29
Where: Athens, Greece
Sports: 28
Countries: 202
Athletes: 10,500
Events: 296
TV: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo
Web site: www.athens2004.com