Gymnastics Olympic champion dies of Corona - he was considered an opponent of vaccination
Created: 01/25/2022, 16:14
By: Patrick Kuolt
Szilvester Csollany won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Now he has died as a result of a corona infection.
© Herbert Rudel/imago
The Hungarian top gymnast and Olympic champion Szilvester Csollany repeatedly drew attention to himself as an opponent of vaccination.
He has now died as a result of an infection.
Budapest – The vaccination-critical Hungarian Olympic gymnastics champion Szilvester Csollany died as a result of a corona infection.
The Hungarian Gymnastics Association confirmed the death of the 51-year-old in a Budapest hospital on Tuesday night.
The top gymnast became Olympic champion on the rings at the 2000 Olympic Games* in Sydney.
Two years later he won the world championship title on the same device in Debrecen, Hungary.
Before that, he had won five World Championship silver medals and one European title in his career.
Last November, Csollany, who lived in the western Hungarian town of Sopron, fell ill with Covid-19.
In early December, his condition deteriorated so much that he had to be taken to a hospital in Budapest.
He was in intensive care and connected to an artificial lung.
Szilvester Csollany: A self-confessed critic of vaccination - and yet vaccinated
According to a report in the
Blikk
newspaper from early January, the gymnast had published several posts against the corona vaccinations on his Facebook page.
However, he recently had himself vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in order to be able to continue his work as a coach in Austria and Iceland, the newspaper reported.
The vaccination was only given shortly before the infection, which apparently meant that his body could not produce enough antibodies.
The corresponding entries on his Facebook page have since been deleted.
Hungary's Prime Minister Orbán pays tribute to Csollany on Facebook: "Farewell, Champion"
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán paid tribute to the gymnast with a black and white photo on Facebook.
"Farewell, Champion," read the caption.
Csollany's colleague, the athlete Zoltan Magyar, lamented "a great loss at such a young age".
The Hungarian Olympic Committee reacted "with deep sadness" to the death of the former top athlete.
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