FACTOIDS
Full Name: Courtney McCool
Nickname: Courtney
Birthday: April 1, 1988
Height: 5’0"
Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri
Sports: Gymnastics
PROFILE
“Everyone is saying Courtney has ‘come out of nowhere,’ but this has been an organized plan that we’ve been developing for years,” said Coach Al Fong. Courtney was age eligible to compete as a senior last summer (and could have possibly been a member of the gold-medal winning 2003 World Championships Team,) but she and her coaches decided it was best to be at the top of the junior rankings rather than in the pack of the highly-competitive senior division.
“I set very high goals for myself, but no so high that I can’t make them. I believed in myself. I believed in my coach (Armine Barutyan Fong), and it really helped having her there to support me. If I didn’t have her, I don’t think I could have made it through ... I know that if I get the chance to go out there and compete for my country, it’s a great honor…I can’t really explain it, but it’s so intense, so exciting, to the point that there are just no words for it.”
