Tara Nott-Cunningham (born Tara Nott, May 10, 1972) is an American former

Olympic weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully li ...

who competed for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. She is the only athlete to have trained for three different sports at the

United States Olympic Training Center The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Centers (OPTCs) are two campuses created by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) as training facilities for its Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They are located in Colorado Spri ...

(

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

, soccer, and

weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...

). Born in

Del Rio, Texas Del Rio is a city and the county seat of Val Verde County in southwestern Texas, United States. The city is 152 miles west of San Antonio. As of 2020, Del Rio had a population of 34,673. History The Spanish established a small settlement south o ...

, Tara Nott grew up in

Stilwell, Kansas Stilwell is an unincorporated community in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. The ZIP Code for Stilwell is 66085. History Stilwell had its start when the Missouri Pacific Railroad began to plan ...

. Her coaches were Mike Gattone and Bob Morris. She attended Blue Valley Middle and High Schools in Stilwell, KS and Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO. She is married to free style wrestler Casey Cunningham. In

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, she became the first US weightlifter to win Olympic gold since Chuck Vinci in 1960, and the first US female weightlifter ever to win Olympic gold. The original gold medal winner, Bulgaria's

Izabela Dragneva Izabela Dragneva-Rifatova ( bg, Изабела Драгнева-Рифатова; born October 1, 1971, in Varna) is a retired weightlifter from Bulgaria, who is best known for being the first female weightlifter to be stripped of her medal and r ...

, was stripped of her gold after testing positive for furosemide, and the gold was awarded to Nott who initially placed second. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she ranked 10th in the 48 kg category. She was inducted into the International Weightlifting Hall of Fame in 2015.

Weightlifting achievements

*Senior National Champion (1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002–2004) *World Championships Team Member (1997–1999, 2003, 2004) *

Pan Am Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

Champion (1999, 2003) *Olympic Champion (2000) *Olympic Games team member (2004) *Multiple All-Time Senior American record holder in

snatch Snatch may refer to: Art and entertainment * ''Snatch'', an album by Howie B * Snatch, a first-wave punk duo formed by Judy Nylon and Patti Palladin * "Snatch" (''Space Ghost Coast to Coast''), a television episode * ''Snatch'' (film), a 2000 ...

clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without re ...

, and total

Notes and references

1972 births Living people Olympic gold medalists for the United States in weightlifting Weightlifters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1999 Pan American Games Weightlifters at the 2003 Pan American Games Olympic medalists in weightlifting American female weightlifters Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in weightlifting People from Stilwell, Kansas Sportspeople from Johnson County, Kansas People from Del Rio, Texas Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games 20th-century American sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen {{US-weightlifting-bio-stub, Nott, Tara