Athletes Deaths Thread

[Nickyc707 382]

Deaths of Olympians in June.

 

 Rod Larrieu, 83 - Athletics

 Josef Smolka, 81 - Volleyball (1×B)

 John Cuneo, 91 - Sailing (1×G)

 Veli Lehtala, 84 - Rowing (2×B)

 Istvan Kausz, 87 - Fencing (1×G)

 Donald Macgregor, 81 - Athletics

 Pieter van der Kruk, 78 - Weightlifting 

 Jean Link, 80 - Fencing

 Pete Rademacher, 91 - Boxing (1×G)

 Kurt Thomas, 64 - Gymnastics

 Zambrose Abdul Rahman, 76 - Athletics

 Peter Marot, 75 - Fencing (1×S, 1xB)

 Odon Foldessy, 90 - Athletics (1×B)

 Cy Strulovitch, 74 - Basketball

 Hermann Salomon, 82 - Athletics

 Jim Grelle, 83 - Athletics

 Phil Takahashi, 63 - Judo

 Seife Makonnen, 68 - Boxing

 Juan Diaz, 84 - Boxing

 Marinho (aka Mario Jose dos Reis Emiliano), 63 - Football

 Ronny Van Sweevelt, 57 - Cycling

 Marlene Ahrens, 86 - Athletics (1×S)

 Gyorgy Karpati, 84 - Water Polo (3×G, 1×B)

 Tibor Benedek, 47 - Water Polo (3×G)

 Milo Sarens, 82 - Boxing

 Endre Lepold, 64 - Athletics

 Noel Vandernotte, 96 - Rowing (2×B)

 Pedro Lima, 47 - Swimming

 Bobana Velickovic, 30 - Shooting

 Manny Santos, 85 - Weightlifting

 Ahmed Radhi, 56 - Football

 Richard Bicskey, 83 - Cycling

 Dick Buerkle, 72 - Athletics

 Witold Baran, 80 - Athletics

 Yebhi Akdag, 71 - Wrestling (1×S)

 Mohammed Yaseen Mohammed, 57 - Weightlifting

 Juan Ostoic, 89 - Basketball

 Ivan Utrobin, 86 - Cross-country Skiing (1×B)

 Marian Cisovsky, 40 - Football

 Aleksandr Kabanov, 72 - Water Polo (2×G)

 

And three late reported deaths from May.

 

 Sidney Cross, 94 - Athletics

 Jozef Grzesiak, 79 - Boxing (1×B)

 Karoly Wieland, 86 - Canoeing (1×B)

 

The total number of former Olympians who passed away in June was 40, just short of this year's high of 42 seen in April.

 

This included six Olympic champions with the sport of water polo hit particularly hard. Two triple gold medallists from Hungary Gyorgy Karpati and Tibor Benedek died within a day of each other. They were from two different generations but both contributed hugely to their country's domination of this sport since the 1930s. Aleksandr Kabanov of the former Soviet Union had an equally distinguished career in the sport winning two gold medals as a competitor before coaching Russia to consecutive titles in Sydney and Athens.

 

In a sad month for Hungary they lost a third Olympic champion with the death of fencer Istvan Kausz who won a gold in the team epee in Tokyo in 1964. Pete Rademacher of the USA was the Olympic heavyweight boxing champion in Melbourne in 1956. Finally, at Munich in 1972 John Cuneo of Australia won a gold medal in sailing's three man Dragon class.

 

Noel Vandernotte of France was one of the few remaining pre-WW11 Olympians at the time of his death. As a 12 year old he coxed both the pair and the four to bronze medals at the 1936 rowing regatta. Marlene Ahrens won a silver medal in the javelin in Melbourne in 1956 and remains the only Chilean woman to win an Olympic medal.

 

Pieter van der Kruk of the Netherlands was a national champion in both weightlifting and shot putting. In an unusual occurrence he qualified for the 1968 Olympics in both sports but ultimately decided that he would concentrate on weightlifting.

 

Lastly it it is particularly sad to note the death of Bobana Velickovic of Serbia who becomes the fourth competitor from Rio to leave us this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[heywoodu 15,141]

Damn, I had completely missed the death of Piet van der Kruk  

 

The last Dutch Olympic weightlifter (no, I'm not counting Youth Olympics here) and until 2016 the Dutch weightlifting commentator for Eurosport. I always had mixed feelings about that: technically he was very good and absolutely knew what he was talking about, but he didn't know the athletes...at all. Like, basic facts about them. For a total non-weightlifting country though, he was good as a commentator.

[Griff88 1,952]

Alfred Kotey (boxing, 1988) passed away in New York.

 

 

[Nickyc707 382]

Non-Olympic, but Sir Everton Weekes one of Barbados and the West Indies greatest ever players has died at the age of 95. Together with Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott they were known simply as the "Three Ws" from the 1950s onwards. Weekes is the only man to have scored five consecutive test centuries in the 143 years of test cricket.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/53258007

[Nickyc707 382]

An aspiring Olympic athlete who was driven to suicide by the abuse of her coaches. Sadly this sort of thing is not uncommon in sport

 

https://gulfnews.com/sport/south-korean-triathlete-choi-suk-hyeon-kills-herself-after-coaching-abuse-reports-1.1593661125879

[PHI2019 262]

Gary Longhi. Canadian Paralympian. Competed in road cycling at four Paralympics from 1988 to 2000 winning gold and bronze in 1996 and silver in 1992. Flag bearer for Canada at the 2000 Paralympics. Age 56 years old.

 

Gary Longhi, Canada's flag-bearer at 2000 Paralympics, dies at 56 | CBC Sports

 

 

[heywoodu 15,141]

The 1964 decathlon champion has died.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willi_Holdorf

[Grassmarket 3,408]

 Snowboard Cross rider Alex Pullen killed in diving accident.  Triple Olympian, twice World Champion.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-53331227

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8500675/High-profile-Australian-sportsman-feared-drowned-Gold-Coast.html

[Olympian1010 7,975]

6 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

 Snowboard Cross rider Alex Pullen killed in diving accident.  Triple Olympian, twice World Champion.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-53331227

What a loss 

 

I grew up watching him at the X Games and the Olympics. This is the hardest I’ve been affected by an athlete death in a while. I vividly remember cheering for him on multiple occasions. He wasn’t an athlete I follow in-depth or on social media, but he was someone I always pulled for the big contests. This has just been the worst year for the Olympic movement.

[heywoodu 15,141]

Damn, you decide to retire and before even announcing it, your life is over  

 

RIP Alex Pullin