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Summer Olympic Deaths/Dead Medallists

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Eva Szekely, Hungarian swimmer who won gold in the 1952 200m breaststroke (and silver in 1956) after escaping the holocaust in 1944.

 

Interesting obituary, even if you have little interest in swimming.

 

 

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Women's Olympic javelin gold medallist from Helsinki 1952 Dana Zatopkova has died aged 97.

 

Coming seventh in the event in London in '48 spurred her to concentrate on the javelin (she also played handball) and she duly won in Helsinki with an Olympic record throw of 50.47 metres. In 1958 she set a world record with a throw of 55.73 metres; she came second in the 1960 Rome Olympics, and was also twice European champion.

 

She was the widow of Emil Zatopek.

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We can almost certainly include the 2020 Olympics as one of this years deaths...There's more chance of me winning a gold medal at the athletics as the event going ahead, and if you saw me you'd realise how unlikely that was ! :lol:

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British pentathlete Peter Whiteside, who competed in Moscow at the 1980 Olympiad, dead at 67 from COVID-19: https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/teesside-athlete-who-represented-great-18103867

 

His story is actually quite heartrending, going from serving the country in the Armed Services, training future Olympic hopefuls, to brain tumours, wheelchair, and finally succumbing to the virus.

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13 hours ago, TomTomTelekom said:

Latvian athlete Janis Lüsis, who competed in the javelin throw in four Summer Olympics for the USSR, winning three Olympic medals., died at 80 years:

https://www.delfi.lv/sports/news/other_kinds/atlethics/miris-legendarais-latvijas-skepmetejs-janis-lusis.d?id=52100455

 

 

QO

Pretty disappointed I didn't have him elsewhere other than Alt now

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Margaret Maughan, Britain's first paralympic gold medallist (Rome 1960, archery) has died aged 91.

 

She competed in 4 subsequent Paralympics and lit the torch for the start of London 2012 Paralympics.

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21 hours ago, alt obits guy said:

Bobby Joe Morrow, who won three gold medals at the 1956 Olympics, has died. He was 84. Morrow was a sprinter and won the 100m and 200m races, then combined for gold on the relay team.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2020/05/30/bobby-joe-morrow-dies-84/5295547002/

 


For Bobby there’s no to-Morrow

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Report of the death of Scottish athlete Don Macgregor aged 80, who represented GB in the 1972 Olympics and Scotland in the 1974 Commonwealth Games in the marathon:

 

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American gymnast Kurt Thomas, who competed at the 1976 Olympics, dead from stroke aged 64: https://www.intlgymnast.com/news/world-champion-gymnast-kurt-thomas-passes-away-after-suffering-stroke/

 

Rather more successful at the World Championships, winning gold in 1978 and 1979 for the Floor Exercise, and gold in 1979 on the Horizontal Bars. Didn't go to Moscow for the 1980 Olympiad due to the US boycott. Became a sometime actor and sports commentator. Fathered some singer called Kurt Travis.

 

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0859123/

 

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8 hours ago, YoungWillz said:

American gymnast Kurt Thomas, who competed at the 1976 Olympics, dead from stroke aged 64: https://www.intlgymnast.com/news/world-champion-gymnast-kurt-thomas-passes-away-after-suffering-stroke/

 

Rather more successful at the World Championships, winning gold in 1978 and 1979 for the Floor Exercise, and gold in 1979 on the Horizontal Bars. Didn't go to Moscow for the 1980 Olympiad due to the US boycott. Became a sometime actor and sports commentator. Fathered some singer called Kurt Travis.

 

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0859123/

 

Best known because the US send him to Parmistan to fight hordes of enemies on the basis every gymnast is a lethal weapon and the 2000 enemies he was facing could only attack one by one.

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That's 2 in 2 days must be summat wrong with the water!

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18 hours ago, chilean way said:

Tibor Benedek hungarian water polo player has died too https://hungarytoday.hu/tibor-benedek-dies-aged-47/

Looking him up, he seems to have been at least the Mario Lemieux of water polo, if not quite the Wayne Gretzky. Just goes to show, if you excel in the 'wrong' sport (for Westerners), eternal fame and fortune shall not be thine, but bound to be better known in the bars of Budapest than Ben Stokes.

 

I don't think those goofy swimming hats really help their case, either.

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16 hours ago, chilean way said:

Serbian olympic shooter Bobana Veličković dies at 30 due to complications from childbirth https://sport.blic.rs/ostali-sportovi/preminula-bobana-momcilovic-velickovic-streljastvo-in-memoriam/msvy9fx


Imagine the surprise to his mum when he was still crowning yet able to join the Olympic shooting team.

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