24. Januar 2022  
Budapest, HUN  
Artistic Gymnastics

Hungary's Olympic champion Szilveszter Csollany succumbed to coronavirus

(C) Smagpictures

At the age of only 51, Hungary's Olympic gymnastics champion on the still rings of Sydney 2000, Szilveszter CCOLLÀNY, died today in Budapest from a COVID19 infection. He was diagnosed with the disease in early December 2021. After treatment in the hospital, he was initially treated further in his apartment in Sopron, but then had to be inpatient and intensively cared for and ventilated again.
Szilveszter Csollány first took part in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Four years later in Atlanta /Georgia/USA) he won the Olympic silver medal on the rings, together with the Romanian Dan Burinca and was only beaten by the Italian rings specialist Jury Chechi.

At his third Olympic Games in 2000 in Sydney (AUT) he then managed to win the Olympic gold medal on the still rings.
Two years later, after five silver medals at the World Championships, he was finally crowned world champion on this apparatus at home, in Debrecen, Hungary.
In 1998 he had already won the European Championship title on thisapparatus.
The German gymnastics audience experienced him at the European Championships in the Olympic year 2000 in Bremen as Vice European Champion.
After retiring from top-level sport, he lived e.g. from 2012 with his family in Iceland and worked there for almost two years as a coach at the Grótta sports club in Seltjarnarnes, and then returned with his family back to his homeland.

 

Bei seinen dritten Olympischen Spielen 2000 in Sydney gelang ihm dann der Olympiasieg an den Ringen. Zwei Jahre später konnte er nach 5 WM-Silbermedaillen sich in Debrecen endlich auch zum Weltmeister an diesem Gerät krönen lassen.
1998 hatte er damals bereits den Europameistertitel an diesem Gerät gewonnen. Das deutsche Turnpublikum erlebte ihn bei den Europameisterschaften im Olympiajahr 2000 in Bremen als Vize-Europameister.
Nach seinem Rücktritt vom Spitzensport lebte er u. a. ab 2012 mit seiner Familie auf Island und arbeitete für knapp zwei Jahre dort als Trainer beim Sportverein Grótta in Seltjarnarnes, und kehrte danach in seine Heimat zurück.