Category: Olympics

R.I.P. Szilveszter Csollany

Szilveszter Csollany, a 2000 Olympic gymnastics champion, died Monday at the age of 51 after spending weeks hospitalized with COVID-19, Hungarian sports officials said.

… a gold medal in the men’s rings competition at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He also won silver in 1996 in Atlanta and a world championship gold in 2002.

He was a six-time medalist at the European gymnastics championships, and the recipient of Hungary’s “Sportsman of the Year” award in 2000 and 2002.

Csollany had been hospitalized with COVID-19 since early December, and spent several weeks on a ventilator.

NBC – Szilveszter Csollany, Olympic gymnastics champion in 2000, dies after COVID infection

Watch his Olympic Rings routine on YouTube.

Apolo Ohno on mental training

Apolo Ohno is an American retired short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist (two gold, two silver, four bronze) in the Winter Olympics.

He notes that he was never one of the most physically, genetically gifted for the craziest of winter sports. Mental training was his edge.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Jade Carey in the NCAA

It’s great to see the Olympic Champion in the orange and black.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

Coach Michael Chaplin had to miss her debut.

Kohei plans on the AA March 12th

… he intends one last hurrah – an exhibition in March during which he will take on all six apparatus.

“I’ll whip this hurting body through to perform on all of them,” he said with a smile.

“It’ll be tougher than qualifying for Tokyo, and that depresses me a bit, but I want to go out this way.”

Nippon.com

He’s calling that last exhibition THE FINAL.

Others will be joining him including members of the Japanese 2016 Rio and the 2009 Tokyo teams.

Celebrating Kohei Uchimura

Blythe Lawrence:

… back-to-back Olympic all-around golds in 2012 and 2016 (the first man to do so since Sawao Kato in 1972), six consecutive world all-around titles collected between 2009 to 2015 (in a sport where no other man has more than two), and 21 world medals (including individual titles on floor exercise, parallel bars, and horizontal bar.) …

“He’s my hero,” echoed Carlos Yulo, the reigning world champion on vault, who on his best days shares Uchimura’s crystal-clear sense of execution and extreme difficulty.

The Philippines-born 21-year-old, who trains in Japan, credits watching Uchimura compete at the London Olympics as a key moment in his childhood. …

In pursuit of perfection, ‘King’ Kohei created pure art
Japan’s Kohei Uchimura competes on the pommel horse during the men’s all-around final at the World Gymnastics Championships at the Hydro arena in Glasgow, Scotland, October 30, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Music professor Lasse Nettum created an original piece to accompany Uchimura’s horizontal bar routine from the 2011 World Championships.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – Magnastics – A History of Uchimura Kohei’s Winning Streak

sport ethics – Brittany Bowe

It was an incredible gesture of friendship – when speed skater Erin Jackson unexpectedly failed to qualify for next month’s Winter Olympics, team-mate Brittany Bowe stepped in to rescue her long-time friend’s Beijing dreams.

Jackson, the world’s number-one ranked 500m speed skater, unexpectedly failed to make the US team after she slipped and finished third in Friday’s event at the Olympic trials in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

So Bowe, who specialises in longer-distance races but had finished first in 500m qualifying, graciously decided to give up her spot. …

BBC