Szilveszter Csollany: Olympic champion who opposed vaccination dies of COVID-19 at age 51

Hungary’s 2000 Olympics gold medal-winning gymnast Szilveszter Csollany has died of Covid-19 aged 51, local authorities said on Monday.

Csollany fell sick in December and was hospitalised and put on a ventilator.

While Csollany had shared several ‘anti-vax’ posts on his Facebook page, he had been vaccinated in order to work as a gymnastics coach, the newspaper Blikk reported at the start of January.

However, the publication said that it had been shortly before he fell ill which had not allowed him to develop a sufficient level of antibodies.

“It is with profound sadness that we inform you of the death of Szilveszter Csollany,” said the Hungarian Olympic Committee.

Csollany took a silver medal on the rings at the Atlanta Games in 1996, going one better in Sydney four years later when he saw off Greece’s Dimosthenis Tampakos and the Bulgarian Yordan Yovchev to take the gold.

European champion in 1998, he also won gold at the 2002 World Championships in Debrecen.

After retiring, Csollany went on to work as a coach in both Iceland and Austria.

“Farewell champion”, wrote Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a message accompanied by a black and white photo, while fellow gymnast Zoltan Magyar, a Hungarian Olympic champion in 1976 and 1980, lamented “a huge loss, at such a young age”. (AFP)