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Kurt Thomas, first U.S. male gymnast to win world championship gold, dies at 64

The Miami native, who had a stroke last month, won gold at the 1978 and 1979 wold championships. The 1980 Games in Moscow were his best shot at Olympic gold, then the U.S. boycott hit.
 
U.S. gymnast Kurt Thomas, shown here in 1980, won three gold medals total at the 1978-79 world championships.
U.S. gymnast Kurt Thomas, shown here in 1980, won three gold medals total at the 1978-79 world championships. [ Archive ]
Published June 7, 2020|Updated June 7, 2020

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,” 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. He was known for his original and daring skills, including the “Thomas Flair” on pommel horse and the “Thomas Salto” on floor exercise.

“I am completely devastated to hear this,” Olympic teammate Bart Conner told International Gymnast Magazine. “Kurt was a fierce rival, who went on to become a cherished friend. My heart is breaking for his wife, Beckie, his children, Hunter, Kassidy and Kurt, as well as the entire gymnastics community, who lost a true pioneer today.”

Thomas said he was told there was a delay before the 1978 medal ceremony in France because organizers did not have the Star-Spangled Banner available due to the United States’ lack of success in the sport.

“I was singing the national anthem, and at the end of it I closed my eyes, and I dropped my head and I remembered that moment, and I can still remember that moment to this day,” Thomas said in his 2003 International Gymnastics Hall of Fame induction speech. “(ABC Sports commentator) Jim McKay said something at the end. He goes, ‘And now the question is asked, is all the work and all the deprivation worth it? The answer is yes in this moment.’ And that is one of the greatest moments of my life.”

He earned another six medals at the 1979 championships, a U.S. record for medals at a single worlds that Simone Biles tied in 2018. The haul included floor exercise and high bar titles, plus a silver medal in the all-around.

He was an international sensation, the New York Times calling him, ''the Baryshnikov and Balanchine of men’s gymnastics.'' He was handsome, daring, quotable and cocky.

''The John McEnroe of gymnastics,'' said Mike Jacki, then-executive director of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation.

But in 1980, Thomas didn’t even bother to try to become the first U.S. gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal in 48 years. That’s because the United States had already announced a boycott of the Moscow Games. Thomas had a minor injury, so he skipped the meaningless U.S. Trials.

When President Jimmy Carter announced in March 1980 that America would be boycotting, Thomas soon retired as an amateur, saying later that he felt betrayed by the decision.

“In my mind and my heart, I knew I was the best at that time,” Thomas said in 1989. “But I did not take a stand against our country, against our president. “For one thing, I didn’t think the athletes who were badmouthing the president were getting anywhere with it.”

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Thomas turned professional, starred in the 1985 movie Gymkata and worked as a television commentator. He and Beckie owned and ran Kurt Thomas Gymnastics in Frisco, Texas. When professionals were allowed in the 1992 Olympics, Thomas attempted a comeback. He made it all the way to the U.S. Trials at age 36 but fell short of earning one of the six Olympic spots for the ′92 Games.

Thomas, born in Miami on March 29, 1956, starred at Indiana State, winning five NCAA titles and leading the Sycamores to the 1977 team crown. He won the AAU’s 1979 James E. Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2003.

“All of us in the gymnastics family are sadden, shocked and devastated by the passing of our own,” legendary Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci tweeted. “Love to the family.”