For Kupets, Comeback Is Complete

The triumph wasn’t in the title, even though Courtney Kupets is proud to share the 2004 U.S. Gymnastics women’s all-around title with Carly Patterson.

But the triumph for Kupets came from something deeper.

It came from keeping up her spirits and her belief that an Achilles’ tendon ruptured in the middle of the 2003 world championships would cost her no more than the gold medal that she failed to win last year.

It came from her determination to showcase her powerful tumbling, her elegant lines on the balance beam and uneven bars and her fighting spirit in time to make the 2004 Olympic team.

Kupets, 17, from Gaithersburg, Md., completed her amazing comeback Saturday night at the Gaylord Events Center when she flew off the uneven bars and landed with just the tiniest of steps. The mark of 9.6 put Kupets in a tie with Patterson, the 16-year-old from Baton Rouge, La., after two nights and eight events. The pair finished with a score of 76.450, a full point better than Terin Humphrey, 17, of Bates City, Mo.

The two girls from Covina’s Charter Oak Gliders gym -- Allyse Ishino, 16, of Santa Ana and Tabitha Yim, 18, of Irvine -- finished fifth and seventh, and safely qualified for the June 24-27 Olympic trials in Anaheim.

Only the top 12 finishers at nationals plus athletes whose injury petitions are allowed, will perform over two nights in the ongoing process to make the Olympic team.

Among the injured athletes who hope to receive the injury exemption are two members of the 2003 gold-medal team -- Hollie Vise and Chellsie Memmel, who also tied for world gold on the uneven bars -- and Annia Hatch, who won the national individual vault title Thursday before withdrawing from the second night of competition.

Vise withdrew Wednesday because of a strained back; Memmel is recovering from a broken foot and Hatch, the 25-year-old seven-time Cuban national champion who is trying to make her first Olympic team, is being careful with the knee she tore up at worlds last year.

Some of the most intense competition Saturday came on the last rotations among the women who were fighting for 12th place and the chance to keep competing for the Olympics. Former UCLA standout Mohini Bhardwaj, 25, had fallen into 13th place after seven events and when she finished her final effort, the floor exercise, Bhardwaj was crying.

“I was crying because I didn’t know, I thought I hadn’t made it,” Bhardwaj said. But Bhardwaj did sneak in, knocking out Ashley Postell and Katie Heenan. Postell had been named to the 2003 world team but couldn’t compete because of stomach flu.

Women’s team coordinator Martha Karolyi said she was pleased with Kupets’ recovery and Patterson’s steadiness while singling out Humphrey as one person who had made a strong impression. “It was a steady performance by Terin,” Karolyi said. “It was also a very nice competition for Ishino.”

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Jennifer Parilla, 23, of Lake Forest, won her third straight national trampoline title Saturday. Parilla will represent the U.S. for the second time at the Olympics.