Add Comment
Two-Time Olympic Canoeing Champ Gyorgy Kolonics Dies at 36
György Kolonics, Hungary's two-time Olympic gold
medallist canoeist, has died on Tuesday at the age of 36. The cause of
death was heart failure.
Kolonics lost consciousness during training on Tuesday morning and while they tried to resuscitate him on shore, the arriving paramedics could not help him either and were only able to pronounce him dead, said Etele Baráth, President of the Hungarian Kayak and Canoe Association.
Kolonics was training for his fifth Olympic Games to take place between August 8 and 24 in Beijing, China.
How it happened?
They fought for Kolonics's life for an hour, until it was clear that there was no help, said Róbert Ludasi, who has been the Olympic champion's coach for 22 years.
Ludasi told local newswire MTI that they had a C-2 (double) practice. "Kolonics (and his partner György Kozmann) warned up well and paddled five or six kilometres. Then they paddled 1,000 metres, which went well and then we were about to start a 500. It was fine too, but then Kolo asked me to come over because he was feeling dizzy. I told him to sit on the motorboat and then to lie down on his back. I saw from the colour of his face that he was really sick. It seemed he could not breathe. I urged Gyuri Kozmann to start pumping his chest and then we blew air into his nose, while I was shouting to the shore for an ambulance," the 56-year old coach said, shattered.
It took the paramedics 37 minutes to get to the scene. While there is a new station nearby, they have no ambulance equipped with life-saving equipment.
"When the paramedics finally came, they continued the resuscitation and even inserted an IV into Gyuri, but there was nothing that could have saved him," Ludasi added.
He said Kolonics always took care of himself and visited the doctor every time he felt something was wrong. The last time he went for a check-up was last week.
Kolonics lost consciousness during training on Tuesday morning and while they tried to resuscitate him on shore, the arriving paramedics could not help him either and were only able to pronounce him dead, said Etele Baráth, President of the Hungarian Kayak and Canoe Association.
Kolonics was training for his fifth Olympic Games to take place between August 8 and 24 in Beijing, China.
How it happened?
They fought for Kolonics's life for an hour, until it was clear that there was no help, said Róbert Ludasi, who has been the Olympic champion's coach for 22 years.
Ludasi told local newswire MTI that they had a C-2 (double) practice. "Kolonics (and his partner György Kozmann) warned up well and paddled five or six kilometres. Then they paddled 1,000 metres, which went well and then we were about to start a 500. It was fine too, but then Kolo asked me to come over because he was feeling dizzy. I told him to sit on the motorboat and then to lie down on his back. I saw from the colour of his face that he was really sick. It seemed he could not breathe. I urged Gyuri Kozmann to start pumping his chest and then we blew air into his nose, while I was shouting to the shore for an ambulance," the 56-year old coach said, shattered.
It took the paramedics 37 minutes to get to the scene. While there is a new station nearby, they have no ambulance equipped with life-saving equipment.
"When the paramedics finally came, they continued the resuscitation and even inserted an IV into Gyuri, but there was nothing that could have saved him," Ludasi added.
He said Kolonics always took care of himself and visited the doctor every time he felt something was wrong. The last time he went for a check-up was last week.
György Kolonics (June 4, 1972 – July 15, 2008), nicknamed Kolo, was a Hungarian canoeist who won two gold and two bronze medals at the Olympic Games. He also won a record fifteen gold medals at World Championships.
He was born and died in Budapest.
Kolonics started canoeing at the Budapesti Spartacus sport club, but as a youth he moved to Csepel SC and remained at the club for his entire career. He first represented Hungary at the 1991 World Championships, and achieved a fifth and the sixth place in the C4 events. At the 1992 Summer Olympics he achieved a fifth and the seventh place in the C2 events with Attila Pálizs.
After the 1992 Olympics he teamed up with Csaba Horváth, and the pair dominated the doubles for several years. They won their first gold together at the 1993 World Championships, and after winning a record of five gold medals at the 1995 World Championships they crowned their cooperation at the 1996 Summer Olympics by winning the gold in C2 500 m in a photo finish [1] and a bronze medal in C2 1000 m. They won a total of 11 World Championships gold medals together in C2 and C4 events, and between 1993 and 1998 there were only two major international competitions where they did not win the C2 500 m gold medal.
After Horváth's retirement in 1998, Kolonics started to focus on the singles and at the 2000 Summer Olympics he won the C1 500 m gold medal. Afterwards he returned to doubles again, teaming up with the younger György Kozmann. The pair won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in C2 1000 m, and a gold medal at both the 2006 World Championships and the 2007 World Championships in C2 500 m. They were also to represent Hungary in both C2 500 m and C2 1000 m at the 2008 Summer Olympics. This would have been the fifth Olympic Games for Kolonics, who was also being considered to carry the Hungarian flag at the opening ceremony.
You will be missing Kolo! You were the world's best canoeist!
| Posted by ternyikrita on 08/09/2008 2:48 AM | Visits: 78 |