Kurt Thomas, the first U. S. male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. He was 64. Thomas’ family said he died Friday.…
Kurt Thomas, the first U. S. male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. He was 64.
Thomas’ family said he died Friday. He had a stroke May 24, caused by a tear of the basilar artery in the brain stem.
“Yesterday, I lost my universe, my best friend and my soulmate of 24 years. Kurt lived his life to the extreme, and I will be forever honored to be his wife,” Beckie Thomas told International Gymnast Magazine.
After competing in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Thomas won the floor exercise in the 1978 world championships in Strasbourg, France, for the first U. S. men’s title. In the 1979 worlds in Fort Worth, Texas, he successfully defended the floor exercise title and won the horizontal bar while adding silver in the all-around, pommel horse and parallel bars.
Thomas. who also captured the American Cup three times, lost a chance for Olympic gold when the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games.
