At 34, Thomas no longer can pound his 5-foot-5-inch body the way he did a decade ago, especially because he has chronic stiffness in the left shoulder because of an old rotator cuff tear. ''We`re rooting for Kurt, not only because of what he can do for the sport in terms of media and fans but because of what he can do to drive our other top athletes,'' Jacki said. Thomas` goal for this year was only to make the 12-man national team. ... And his trademark Thomas flair will forever be a symbol of his creativity and daring. Throughout his gymnastic career, Thomas won eight world medals, including three gold medals, and created two signature moves called the "Thomas Flair" and the "Thomas Salto." Kurt Thomas was the first American men’s gymnast to become a crossover superstar, in the vein of Cathy Rigby, who preceded Thomas by almost a decade. But at 14 he watched the Miami‐Dade Junior College gymnastics team at a practice and was impressed. Kurt Thomas never has, and perhaps he never will. His stroke on May 24 was caused by a tear in the basilar … At least 106 people shot, 14 fatally, in Chicago weekend violence, Watch live: Gov. Ditiatin won three Olympic gold medals, including the all-around, became the first person to win medals in the maximum eight events and was voted. The bankruptcy was the low point of a bad year for Thomas. He helped take the men’s gymnastics team to the 1977 national collegiate championship and ranked behind only Larry Bird, the future basketball Hall of Famer, as a campus celebrity. ... best known for his pommel horse move the Thomas flair and Thomas … Kurt Bilteaux Thomas was born in Miami on March 29, 1956. However, in gymnastics, new moves are named in the gymnastics rule book after the gymna… For he wandered through the next decade, bouncing from wealth to bankruptcy, from marriage to divorce twice, from Tempe, Ariz., to Los Angeles to San Diego to Phoenix to Orlando to Lake Zurich, Ill. As a boy, he was interested in playing professional basketball or football, but was drawn to gymnastics after attending a practice. Kurt Thomas was 64 years old. In addition to his wife, Rebecca (Jones) Thomas, his survivors include their children, Hunter and Kassidy, as well as a son, Kurt, from a previous marriage. SKU: BK B0027 R01 M (50). His father, who managed a meat company, died when he was 7, and he and his siblings were raised by their mother, Ellie, a secretary. Kurt Thomas Achievements. The move is commonly spelled flair in gymnastics and further may be called a "Thomas flair" after its originator, Kurt Thomas. Battaglia called a friend, Jim Pappas, whose family owns FORM Plastics of Elk Grove Village. ''Every day, someone asks me a question about the boycott,'' Thomas said. Later that year, his old school, Indiana State University, announced it was dropping gymnastics for financial reasons. Creator of the Thomas Flair on pommel horse and the Thomas Spin on the horizontal bar, Kurt Thomas was among the sport’s best competitors and innovators during his competitive years in the 1970s. Kurt Thomas, first U.S. man to win a world gymnastics title, dies at 64 Kurt Thomas, shown at the 1979 world championships in Fort Worth, died Friday, according to his family. Three gymnastic moves were named for him, the Thomas flair, a pommel horse move, and the Thomas salto, his signature skill on floor exercise, a tucked 1.5 backward saltowith 1.5 twist into a roll out (a difficult and dangerous skill even by today's standards), and the Thomas on High Bar. In April 1979, he made an appearance on Dick Cavett’s TV show, in which he provided instruction to Cavett, who had been a gymnast in his high school days. Thomas took part in professional gymnastics shows and worked as a TV commentator at gymnastics events later in the 1980s, when the Olympics were still limited to amateurs. Kurt Thomas was born in Miami, Florida, on March 29, ... Thomas was well-known for bringing a certain “flair” to his routines and especially his pommel horse and floor exercise routines. He was born on March 29, 1956, in Miami, Florida, United States. The injury has bothered his training enough recently that Thomas dropped out of a regional qualifying meet this weekend for the June national championships. Kurt Thomas was a competitive gymnast of such brilliance he invented a pommel horse move that was named for him: the Thomas Flair. Kurt Thomas, the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. ''In the time I worked with Kurt (1978-80), I never thought he reached his full potential. At those World Championships, he also won silver medals in pommel horse and parallel bars and a bronze in the team competition. He was an innovator on pommel horse - where the 'Thomas Flair… Not part of an act that played places such as the Sheraton Bal Harbour in Miami. ''If you can make money, you can make money. Cause of Death. Wife. Kurt Thomas, the first U.S. male to win a gold medal at the Gymnastic World Championships, died Friday after suffering a stroke. The New York Times called Thomas, ''the Baryshnikov and Balanchine of men`s gymnastics.'' The comeback began, with concessions to age. Thomas was well-known for bringing a certain “flair” to his routines and especially his pommel horse and floor exercise routines. But the Moscow Games went on without the United States, and what could have been his greatest international triumph was not to be. His contract with Sea World alone was worth $1.3 million in 1985. '', Kurt Thomas was a competitive gymnast of such brilliance he invented a pommel horse move that was named for him: the Thomas Flair. The fourth was in 1980. The next year, 1978, a victory in floor exercise made him the first U.S. gymnast ever to win a gold medal at the World Championships. ''I have no doubt Kurt can be the best again,'' Battaglia said. Kurt Bilteaux Thomas was born in Miami on March 29, 1956. 1995 Flair #222 Kurt Thomas: $0.34: 1995 Flair Class of '95 #11 Kurt Thomas: $0.34: 1995 Fleer #313 Kurt Thomas: $0.23: 1995 Fleer Class Encounters #36 Kurt Thomas: $0.34: 1995 Metal #164 Kurt Thomas: $0.34: 1995 NBA Hoops Hoops #269 Kurt Thomas: $0.24: 1995 Pacific Draft Pick Prisms #53 Kurt Thomas: In 1980, Kurt Thomas was to have become the first U.S. gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal in 48 years. ''I`ve obviously gotten over it, and I obviously haven`t gotten over it. Gymnastics: Former US star Kurt Thomas, creator of ‘The Thomas Flair’, dies following a stroke at 64. He went on to become the dominant player of the decade. Kurt Thomas, the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. Product: Flair. Children. Thomas obviously began to wonder what his legacy would be. He can still do that with a high finish at the national re-ranking meet in December. And though was a favorite at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, he didn’t get a chance to compete: The American team boycotted the Games in retaliation for the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Gymnastics: Former US star Kurt Thomas, creator of 'The Thomas Flair', dies following a stroke at 64. Thomas said he needed 16 facial stitches. ''most noteworthy performer'' of the entire Games. Kurt Thomas was born on March 29, in 1956, in Miami, Florida. The Thomas flair on pommel horse, and then also performed on floor, was developed over years by several pommel horse specialists. It was his fifth appearance on Carson. Year: 1995. The flare is an acrobatic move in which the performer alternates balancing the torso between either arm while swinging the legs beneath in continuous circles. LOS ANGELES (AFP, NYTIMES) – Former Olympian Kurt Thomas, the first American to win the world champi.. J.B. Pritzker gives a coronavirus update, After Twitter outcry, 5 women detail Chris D’Elia’s alleged sexual improprieties. Those facts became public Sept. 4, 1986, when Thomas filed for bankruptcy, listing assets of $127,500 and debts of $864,827. He was 64. Kurt Thomas Age. In early 1980, President Carter announced the boycott in retaliation for the Soviet Union`s invasion of Afghanistan. The “Salto” involved a dangerous backward move in a tucked position. ''You win and lose and make mistakes in life,'' Thomas said. champion, winning the parallel bars and all-around in 1977, and parallel bars, horizontal bar and the all-around in 1979. Kurt Thomas was an Olympic gymnast and the first American to win the world championship in men's gymnastics. His moment in time was lost to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. ''The John McEnroe of gymnastics,'' said Mike Jacki, executive director of the U.S. The Flair involved leg movements so complicated it was like watching a pair of disjointed helicopter blades whirl at full speed. The trial ended in a hung jury. Thomas was so inventive two moves are named in his honor: the Thomas Flair, a pommel horse move, and the Thomas Salto, his signature skill in floor exercise. At last year`s World Championships, the men`s team tied for eighth and Lance Ringnald, the top U.S. finisher in the all-around, was 29th. Add to Favorites. Kurt lived his life to the extreme, and I will be forever honoured to be his wife,” his wife Beckie Thomas told International Gymnast Magazine. On July 4, 1988, in a story that mentioned his part in St. Louis`, Independence Day celebration, a wire service referred to Kurt Thomas as the. He died on June 5, 2020. The first American to win a world championship in men’s gymnastics, he captured many medals but missed out on his best chance to take Olympic gold. Conner, who won the gold medal on the parallel bars at the 1979 world championships and at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, wrote on Twitter that “Kurt was a fierce rival, who went on to become a cherished friend.”. He was 64. He had a stroke May 24. It cost a little more but well worth it in our opinion. In the “Flair,” he flew into a series of wide-swinging leg moves in which he would kick his feet high into the air. World champion American gymnast Kurt Thomas has died at the age of 64 following a stroke. It was a decision Thomas finally made last July, after nearly a decade of hectoring by old friend and former coach Lee Battaglia, co-owner of the U.S. “I saw this guy swinging on a high bar, and I just thought it was kind of a neat sport,” he said. The problems, he said, were the result of a lengthy and costly divorce from his second wife. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/sports/kurt-thomas-dead.html Despite the boycott, his appeal was such that he could put together the Kurt Thomas Gymnastics America show and have no problem getting bookings. Early in 1986, he filed battery charges against a San Diego State University linebacker after a fight in a nightclub restroom. He was handsome, daring, quotable and cocky. ''Kurt Thomas was the only male gymnast we`ve ever had-maybe the only male gymnast anyone has ever had-who had the same attraction to the general public and the media as the top females did,'' Jacki said. The company agreed to pay all Thomas` expenses through the 1992 Olympics in return for some promotional work. None of them is likely to appear on the Johnny Carson show, as Thomas did last Thursday night. Kurt lived his life to the extreme, and I will be forever honored to be his wife," his wife Beckie Thomas told the International Gymnast Magazine. Thomas was the greatest male gymnast ever produced in the United States. Gymnastics Federation. Thomas followed up his breakthrough at the 1978 championships by winning five world championship individual medals in 1979, including gold in the floor exercise once more and in the horizontal bar, at Fort Worth. He joined with Bart Conner as trailblazing figures among American men in a sport in which women had garnered most of the attention and in which China, France, Japan and the Soviet Union had dominated men’s international gymnastics. “I saw this guy swinging on a high bar, and I just thought it was kind of a neat sport.”. The northwest Chicago suburb is where Thomas is now, at age 34, training for the comeback that will help him make the Olympics he missed and make people remember who he was. Thomas received the Sullivan Award as the nation’s leading amateur athlete in 1979 and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2003. With the help of coaches Don Gutsler and Bruce Davis, Thomas excelled quickly. Rookie: Yes. The Flair involved leg movements so … The quality of U.S. men`s gymnastics has dropped precipitously since 1984, when Bart Conner, Mitch Gaylord and Tim Daggett were stars of the Olympics and would have been good enough to win medals even if the Soviets hadn`t engaged in a tit-for-tat boycott. When he unveiled the move in Barcelona 13 years ago, Spanish newspapers headlined it ''The New Gymnastics.''. “I wanted to be a doctor and then a policeman, and then a pro basketball player or football,” he told The New York Times in 1979. He was a multiple N.C.A.A. At that time, the country was still in the thrall of Olympic gymnasts Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci, and it ached for a home-grown hero. Maybe it was the inner gyroscope that had guided his life. He was 64. Some part of him apparently was lost then, too. Kurt Thomas didn`t even bother to enter the meaningless U.S. Olympic trials because he had a minor injury. It is a fundamental b-boying/bgirl power move, and in gymnastics it may be performed on a pommel horse or during the floor exercise. In the run-up to the 1980 Moscow Games, television was raising Thomas’s profile. ''You`re not really the best until you achieve it in the Olympics. In 1980, McEnroe established his place in history by losing what some consider the greatest Wimbledon final ever and by winning his second U.S. Open title. Thomas did not want to stay in the sport until the 1984 Olympics because old eligibility rules meant he would have to take a vow of near poverty to do it. He was not an Olympic gold medalist, though. Not the leader of a gymnastics troupe that was a sideshow at Sea World and state fairs. His income that year and in 1984 was reported at $300,000. Thomas went that one better in 1979, winning the floor exercise and horizontal bar and finishing second in the all-around by a fraction to Aleksandr Ditiatin of the Soviet Union. Thomas was known for his daring and innovative moves in what came to be called the “Thomas Flair” on the pommel horse and the “Thomas Salto” in the floor exercise. Kurt Thomas was married to his wife Rebecca Jones in 1996. ''That`s why I`m trying to get back and do it again. He considered that setback only a minor bump on his road to 1992. The couple had one child Kurt Travis. That`s why I`m trying to get to the (1992) Barcelona Olympics and get a medal.''. ''It`s only money,'' Thomas said. The previous month in New York City, before a packed house and an estimated 35 million television viewers, Thomas won all‐around honors at the American Cup games in Madison Square Garden for the second year in a row despite a sore thumb, which he had injured in his final collegiate home meet the week before. Thomas played on a newly formed gymnastics team at his high school and won a scholarship to Indiana State University in Terre Haute. Kurt Thomas, the first American to win a gymnastics gold medal at the world championships, died Friday. At the Olympics four years later, they were 11th. We’ve arrived.”. By then, he was a star. Should Thomas make the national team, his competition will be a faceless group of college kids, some barely half his age. The task is not as formidable as it might seem. Thomas’ family said he died Friday. Card Number: 222. A year ago, when Battaglia suggested a comeback again, the gymnast said, ''Get me a sponsor and I`ll do it.''. His father was a meat-company manager and former wrestler who died in a car accident when Kurt … the thomas flair that's a maneuver named after kurt thomas, who put his mark on gymnastics in the '70s as a competitor, and who is doing so again -- this time, as a performer. The U.S. men won the team gold medal in 1984. Kurt Thomas, the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. Former Olympian Kurt Thomas earned a total of … ''There is no question in my mind I`ll be No. A few months later, he competed for the last time, in a makeshift event for the U.S. gymnasts left out in the cold. I continued to harp on it, but Kurt had already moved in other directions.''. Not the star of a failed B-movie. ''I have to take the blame for this,'' Battaglia said. They had to encourage Thomas to enter his first AAU Nationals, and as they say, the rest is history. Ps: Rest in peace master of the Flare KURT THOMAS ( March 29, 1956 - June 5, 2020 ) #topiek #smallblack #MyOwn #OGKidz #Vienchanstudio #hiphop #hiphopdance #DancerLives #Thomas #Flare #Airflare #KurtThomas ''I don`t think I need to redeem myself personally and financially, but this would be an added dimension to my life. Kurt Thomas, who became the first US athlete to win a gymnastics gold medal at the world championships, died Friday. After the Garden event, where several Americans made it to the finals, Thomas said: “We’ll be heard of in Moscow, you can bet on that. He was not even an Olympian. He tried a comeback, at 36, when the Olympic ban on professionals had been lifted, but he was unable to get past the United States trials for the 1992 Games. 1 again,'' Thomas said. He had a gymnastics school, a gymnastics camp, a job with ABC-TV as a commentator. It’s time for the world to look out for American gymnasts. Almost any expert will tell you that. He had yet to reach his prime when he competed at the 1976 Games. Kurt Thomas, who became the first American to win a world championship event in men’s gymnastics when he captured gold in the floor exercise at Strasbourg, France, in 1978, died on Friday. There is no question I can make it back.''. Kurt Thomas, Trailblazing Champion Gymnast, Dies at 64, Kurt Thomas in 1979 with the medals he won at the Gymnastics World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. But he never won an Olympic medal. Kurt Thomas, the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. Gymnastics Training Center in Lake Zurich. 1995-96 Flair 222 Kurt Thomas RC. ''Gymkata.'' He was 64 and died from complications caused by a … That led to the “Thomas flair” being adopted as a technique on the pommel horse,other than that their is the “Thomas salto” was also named after Thomas. Thomas’s wife, Rebecca, who owned and operated a gymnastics center with her husband in Frisco, Texas, near Dallas, confirmed the death, telling International Gymnast magazine that he had a stroke on May 24.