Former UGA gymnast Courtney Kupets received the Sportswoman of the Year Award for individual-sport athletes. She was honored Oct. 13 at the Women’s Sports Foundation’s 30th Annual Salute to Women in Sports dinner in New York City.
As a senior during the 2009 season, Kupets led UGA to its fifth straight NCAA championship title, and she won the all-around, bars, beam and floor individual competitions. She became the first gymnast ever to win a national title in all events and received five First-Team All-America honors, making a total of 15 for her career, the maximum for only competing three years.
Kupets is the all-time NCAA leader with nine individual championships and was named SEC Female Athlete of the Year, as well as the AAI National, NCAA Southeast Regional and SEC Gymnast of the Year. Kupets became the third Gym Dog ever to record a 10.0 in all four individual events, and she had seven 10.0s in 2009, including three at the NCAAs.
A National Honor Society member, she also was chosen as ESPN The Magazine’s First Team Academic All-American and was a recipient of NCAA and SEC postgraduate scholarships. She also was a member of the Blue Key Honor Society and a recipient of the Richard B. Russell Student Leadership Award. She won UGA’s Marilyn Vincent Award as the senior female student-athlete with the highest grade-point average. Earlier this year, Kupets won the Honda-Broderick Cup as the nation’s top collegiate female athlete.
