Joe Kotys Explained

Joe Kotys
Full Name:Joseph Kotys
Country:United States
Birth Date:31 October 1925
Birth Place:Olyphant, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Death Place:Florida, U.S.
Discipline:MAG
Gym:Swiss Turners
Collegeteam:Kent State Golden Flashes
Show-Medals:yes

Joseph Kotys (October 31, 1925 – August 21, 2012) was an American artistic gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and won a team gold medal and three individual medals at the 1955 Pan American Games. At the 1948 Summer Olympics, he placed seventh with the team and had his best individual result of twenty-third place on pommel horse.

Formative years

Kotys fought in World War II as a gunner on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and completed twenty-two missions. He attended Kent State University and was a member of the Kent State Golden Flashes men's swimming and diving and men's gymnastics teams. As a diver he won the Ohio Conference three times, and as a gymnast, he won National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles in the all-around in 1949–50, on parallel bars in 1949–50, on the horizontal bar in 1950, and on the pommel horse in 1951. He also won three Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) titles, in the vault in 1948 and on parallel bars in 1948 and 1951. While competing on rings at the 1956 U.S. Olympic Trials he crashed to the floor due to a failed support mount.

Professional life

Kotys retired shortly after his injury in the U.S. Olympic Trials and became a gymnastics coach in Ohio. In 1978, he was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame. During the early 1960s, he was a gymnastics coach in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Kotys was a member of Swiss Turners of Cleveland.[1]

Death

Ailing with pancreatic cancer, Kotys died from cancer-related complications in Florida on August 21, 2012.[2]

Notes and References

  1. News: McCarron . Rosemary . May 2, 1948 . Bordo, Bonsall On Olympic Team . . S3 . November 22, 2023.
  2. Normile . Dwight . August 24, 2012 . Former U.S. Olympian Joe Kotys Passes Away . . https://web.archive.org/web/20170829124201/http://www.intlgymnast.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3408:former-us-olympian-joe-kotys-passes-away&catid=81:headlines&Itemid=191 . August 29, 2017 . November 22, 2023.