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COURTNEY McCOOL
Courtney Lynn McCool (born April 1, 1988, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American gymnast
who was a team member in the 2004 Summer Olympics women's artistic gymnastic team. Although she didn't compete in the
team finals, she helped the team place second, earning the silver medal behind Romania. Featured among
Inside Gymnastics magazine's "50 Most Photogenic Gymnasts of 2005," Courtney is known for combining beautiful
technique with explosive power.
McCool was coached by Al and Armine Fong of Dragon Gymnastics and Great American Gymnastic Express in Kansas City,
Missouri. She was the runner-up at 2003's Junior US Championships, and vaulted her way to a silver medal at the 2003
Pan American Games. At sixteen years old and in her first year as a senior gymnast, McCool was the runner-up at March's
American Cup and the all-around champion at the Olympic Test Event in Athens where she was the only gymnast to qualify
for all four event finals, winning the silver on vault and bronze on bars. In 2004 McCool placed fourth in the all-around
at the US National Championships and second all-around at the US Olympic Trials, all but guaranteeing her a spot on the
Olympic Team.
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Courtney McCool, 2004 US Olympic Trials
Photograph copyright © Heather Maynez, www.gymnpics.com. All rights reserved. |
After Courtney finished second in the all-around at the 2004 Olympic Trials (losing to
Courtney Kupets by .150), she was officially named to the Olympic team at the
team selection camp. There was a lot of hype surrounding Kupets, McCool, and Carly Patterson
going into the Olympics for two reasons: 1.) Many coaches and gymnastics experts had said that any one of the three
of them could win the all-around in Athens (and Patterson did); and 2.) There were only two gymnasts per country allowed
to go onto the all-around finals, while prior to 2004 it had always been three. Meaning, one of the three of them was not
even going to be able to compete in the all-around. Results from the preliminary competition would decide which two would
advance. As such, lineup positions were very important, as scores typically build during a rotation and most teams prefer
to save for last the gymnast they think will score highest.
McCool started on the uneven bars by going up third for the team, with Mohini Bhardwaj
leading off, Terin Humphrey going second, and Patterson going 4th, and finally
Kupets being last up. McCool performed a solid routine with just a hop on the dismount and got a 9.575. The next rotation,
balance beam, is where the tables turned for McCool. Normally one of her best events, McCool went up 4th (with only
Patterson going after her). She almost fell off the beam on her Onodi. This mistake was particularly devastating because
she was to connect that skill immediately with a sheep jump. Because of the wobble, she not only got a deduction for that
mistake, but also got another deduction for breaking the connection between the two skills, lowering her start value.
This resulted in a score of 9.112, low for an athlete who was considered to be a medal prospect.
Things didn't get much better for McCool on the floor exercise. She under-rotated when she landed her triple twist
and stumbled out of bounds. Then, instead of doing a front layout on her last tumbling pass she only did a front tuck.
This resulted in another subpar score of 9.250. However, because her teammate Terin Humphrey
had also made mistakes on the floor exercise (earning a 9.225) the team was forced to keep McCool's score. Although McCool
came back with a good vault (earning a 9.350), it wasn't enough to erase the disappointing day. Her two worst performances
had come on the apparatus where she was most likely to be used during the team finals. The solid scores on vault and bars
were useful for the team, but McCool had never been likely to vault in finals when two specialists had been taken for that
purpose, and her good bars score was only the 4th highest on the team. This reflects the depth the US enjoyed on bars —
two US gymnasts had become co-world champions on that event the previous year; one was made an alternate to the Olympic team,
and the other was left off the team entirely.
In a controversial decision, Marta Károlyi posted the lineups for the team final (with the new three per apparatus,
all the scores count scoring) and left McCool off completely. This became even more controversial after the star of the team,
Patterson, made a major error on the uneven bars. Although Patterson had scored higher on bars than McCool during the Prelims,
Patterson was known to have a weakness on bars and had made several errors on the event in the three years preceding the Olympics.
McCool was known for her consistency on the event, and had not had any major errors on bars during the preliminaries.
Patterson made the error on an element that she had often had difficulty with in the past. It was a costly mistake for the
USA, scoring a low (but perhaps generous) 9.287. McCool could only watch from the sidelines. Shortly before the balance beam
Kupets suffered a stress fracture in her hip warming up and Károlyi decided to send Bhardwaj, instead of McCool,
as the third person. Bhardwaj did well, however a Start Value of only 9.8 hampered her and she received only a 9.4.
On the final apparatus, floor exercise, Kupets decided to risk it and compete and made an error when she stumbled out of
her triple turn and omitted the popa jump that was supposed to be connected to the turn. She scored only a 9.187 which would
seal the team's fate as runner-up. Kupets's routine only had a 9.8 Start Value at the Olympics because she was still
recovering from the Achilles injury that she suffered at the 2003 World Championships. However, due to Kupets's mistake,
her routine in team finals only started from a 9.6.
Some people feel that Károlyi made a huge error by not letting McCool compete during team finals. Looking at
just the information that was available at the time and not using the knowledge of what eventually happened, it's hard
to see how this athlete could've been used in a 6-3-3 team final when there were at least three athletes better than her
on each of her best events. Team USA finished with the silver, and McCool was commended for her team spirit.
After Athens, it emerged that McCool had been suffering from a wrist condition for some time, preventing her from
performing in any post-Olympic gymnastics exhibitions at all, and requiring surgery. This had not been public knowledge
prior to the Olympics, but it is still unclear how much the US team selectors knew about the problem when then injured
Courtney beat out Carly Patterson for second place in the all-around score
behind Courtney Kupets at the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials. McCool's surgery for
the painful condition prevented her from training properly for two years thereafter. Despite this, she earned a full
scholarship to the University of Georgia, the current NCAA champions. She began her freshman year in 2006, and has competed
for the team on beam and floor throughout the 2006–2007 season.
In her UGA freshman season, McCool demonstrated steady progress with her wrist rehab and rapidly increasing maturity as
a team athlete. In the midst of a devastating last-minute season ending injury to Ashley Kupets in warm ups and a dismal
team showing on beam at the 2007 NCAA Gymnastics Championships in Salt Lake City, UT, McCool scored an event high score of
9.95 on beam, solidifying the UGA Gym Dogs' lead on the way to their record setting third straight national title.
McCool has expressed interest in returning to elite possibly as a floor and beam specialist but her status as far as
making a comeback to elite in time for the Olympic Trials in the Summer of 2008 is unknown.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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