More gossip from the Kupets Comeback front…
Of course the safest thing to presume (and I shall stay on the safe side, thank you) is that Courtney will continue NCAA, and go on to lead the Gym Dogs (most likely) to their fourth national title, and continue with her schooling, etc., but then, if you prefer to live on the wild (and possibly libelous) side, perhaps it would interest you to know that…
…the news that [Kupets] was supposedly making an Olympic run came out last week. Georgia starts school early, and their midterm course drop deadline for the semester was…Friday (October 12). If she is serious about this, I’m guessing she dropped her courses and announced her intentions last week – thus the timing of the rumors. And things have been really quiet from Georgia’s corner this week, even as a lot of news has been coming out of other college programs. A certain other board has been begging the Georgia coaches for updates all week, with no results. So I wouldn’t be surprised if…
(Italics mine)
“I wouldn’t be surprised if” indeed. Now, considering that the rumors (these are RUMORS, shall I remind you) started on online message boards…
Maybe the rumors are all wrong and she’s in Georgia, at school and planning to compete NCAA as usual. I’d be surprised, though, because a lot of people connected with Kupets, Hill’s, and Georgia all lurk at various message boards. If this was all total bullshit, I assume at least one of those groups would be eager to squash the rumors. Their deafening silence is probably significant.
Or maybe they’re just lazy.
Or maybe…just maybe…
But then–and here I am going off on an assumption of my own–can I (knowing that Courtney McCool is her UGA teammate and good friend) believe that Kupets would want to return to the “machine”, i.e., USA Gymnastics, that treated said teammate badly? (Apparently, McCool was denounced by the then-president of USAG for joining another show tour during the TJ Maxx thingamabob, when all the poor girl did was miss her family. Yes, I realize the team comes first, but the Games were over by then. Ass.) But even if the McCool fiasco is inconsequential, is Courtney really that hungry for another shot at Olympic glory?
Of course, the fact that she battled her Achilles tear in 2004, and then the hip fracture at the Games itself, was an indicator of how badly she wanted it then, but that was in the past. Now she is healthy (for the most part), and according to sources more knowledgeable than me, a good contender for floor exercise and, more importantly, uneven bars (USA’s current weakness!).
But… how about now, when she seems to be having so much fun, and quite a bit of stardom, with NCAA?
Here’s what Courtney herself had to say in this tidbit from an interview from late December 2006:
Beyond the current NCAA season, Kupets said a return to international competition is a “hard question to answer,” but not unreasonable.
“I always love a challenge, and if everything fell into place and I was capable I would not turn down the opportunity,” she said. “But right now I am in collegiate gymnastics and that is where all my focus goes to, not to mention all the school work involved in it. Basically I don’t rule out the possibility, but as of now it is not my intention.”
(Emphasis mine)
The question is, with 2008 around the corner…is it her intention now? Or (and here is another possibility) will she “pull a Mohini” and come back for London 2012, instead? Hmm…
I will still err on the side of caution, and say that for now, Courtney has no plans on going anywhere near Beijing. I’d love to see her prove me wrong, though.
