Hall of Fame member and Gold Medalist Tara Nott celebrates 45th birthday!
Cunningham, the first United States weightlifter to win Olympic gold since Chuck Vinci in 1960 —and the first US female weightlifter ever to win Olympic gold was born on 10th May 1972.
She was an Olympic weightlifter for the United States at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Tara Lee (Nott) Cunningham was the first Kansan to bring home a medal during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. She is the only athlete to have trained for three different sports at the United States Olympic Training Center (gymnastics, soccer, and weightlifting).
A native of Stilwell, Cunningham also competed at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and finished 10th overall in the 48kg bodyweight category. Cunningham was an American record holder in two different weight classes and was honored with the establishment of the Tara Nott Award. She was a two-times gold medalist at the Pan-American Games, a seven-times USAW national champion and eight-times World Team member.
Honors: Cunningham was inducted into the Colorado College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001 and is also a member of the Blue Valley High School Hall of Fame. She was named the 2000 Citation Winner by the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame as well as was inaugurated in the IWF Hall of Fame in 2015.
