Kurt Thomas

• Born: March 29, 1956
• Birthplace: Miami, Florida
• Died: June 5, 2020
• Place of death: Texas

Sport: Gymnastics

Early Life

Kurt Bilteaux Thomas was born on March 29, 1956, in Miami, Florida. A child small for his age, he grew up in a rough urban neighborhood and developed street sense quickly. When he was seven, his father, Robert, a manager at a meat company, was killed in an automobile accident, leaving Eleanore Thomas, a secretary, to raise her three sons and daughter alone.

By that time, 1963, Thomas was already doing handstands as the tumbler in the neighborhood circus. When he was nine, doctors informed his mother that his small size was a result of heart murmurs—his stature a blessing in disguise for the future gymnast. At fourteen, as a 4-foot 9-inch, 77-pound sophomore at Miami Central High School, he wandered into a local college gymnasium and was thrilled by a gymnast’s daring moves on a horizontal bar. By a stroke of luck, a man named Don Gutzier had just come to begin a gymnastics program at Miami Central. The young gymnast enrolled and was on his way.

The Road to Excellence

In the early 1970s, Thomas began competing at high school and amateur competitions. At the 1972 Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympics, he first faced Bart Conner, who proved a constant rival in coming years. In 1974, Roger Counsil, gymnastics coach at Indiana State University, scouted Thomas and was impressed with his positive attitude, ambition, and toughness.

At Indiana State, Thomas was allowed to take a reduced course load to allow for international competition. He trained hard, with three two-hour sessions daily. As a freshman, he placed ninth in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition. He had grown to 5 feet 5 inches; with his long arms, short legs, and good strength-to-weight ratio, he managed the pommel horse and rings easily. Given his independent personality, he brought original, often balletic elements to his floor exercise routines. He also incorporated tricks—quick, daring attention-getting moves, such as a triple-flyaway dismount from the horizontal bar—that further personalized his style.

At the 1975 Criterion Cup in Barcelona, Spain, Thomas introduced a move that caught the attention of the gymnastics world and eventually took his name: The “Thomas Flair,” a flashy series of swinging leg moves first used on the pommel horse and later incorporated into floor exercises. The move became a standard element of the gymnastics repertoire.

The Emerging Champion

Thomas was bringing to men’s gymnastics the attention that performers like Olga Korbut and Cathy Rigby were bringing to women’s. The combination of his handsome, boy-next-door looks and his confident, even defiant, attitude held great audience appeal.

Meanwhile, Thomas continued to develop his technical expertise. Sports Illustrated picked him to win the gold medal on the pommel horse at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, but he hurt his finger just before the Games and competed without distinction.

Following Montreal, Thomas underwent a spiritual transformation and adopted a Christian way of life. On December 31, 1977, he married Beth Osting, a farm girl from Rushville, Indiana, whom he had met at an Indiana State sorority party. His friend and mentor Counsil was his best man.

From 1976 to 1978, Thomas won three successive US Gymnastics Federation titles. He took second place to Japanese gymnast Mitsuo Tsukahara in the 1977 American Cup in New York, where he scored 9.6 or higher in all six individual events. In 1977, he was ninth in international rankings.

Thomas’s greatest triumphs were soon to come. At the 1978 World Cup in São Paulo, Brazil, and the 1979 World Cup in Tokyo, Japan, he placed second and fourth, respectively. At the 1978 World Gymnastics Championships in Strasbourg, France, his gold medal in the floor exercise was the first gold medal won by an American in Olympic or world championship competition since 1932. The following year, at the World Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, he placed second in the all-around behind the Soviet Alexander Dityatin and earned two individual gold medals, two silver medals, and a team bronze medal, for a total of six medals.

With his success in Fort Worth, Thomas was eager to compete at the 1980 Olympics and was picked by many as a favorite on the pommel horse and floor exercise. However, political difficulties led to a US boycott of the Moscow Olympics. A lifetime dream became a lifetime disappointment. Instead, Thomas had to settle for an impressive showing at the 1980 American Cup, where he was first all-around and earned a perfect score of 10 on the horizontal bar.

Continuing the Story

By 1980, Thomas was a media star. He had appeared on numerous television talk shows and kept a busy schedule of interviews, exhibitions, and press appearances. With the disappointment of the Olympic boycott, he retired from amateur competition and turned professional, developing and touring gymnastics road shows. In 1980, he teamed with writer Kent Hannon on a book, Kurt Thomas on Gymnastics (1980), in which he reflected on his career, gave advice to young gymnasts, and offered candid opinions on such topics as coaching, judging, and his rivalry with Conner. He also began writing an ongoing column in International Gymnast magazine, addressing his large following among aspiring gymnasts, and opened his own summer training center, the Gymnastics Camp with a Flair.

Through the 1980s, Thomas considered a return to competition, and the issue of his amateur or professional status—a distinction not clearly defined in the sport—received much attention. Rather than compete at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, as he had hoped to do, he served as a television commentator, a role he repeated four years later at the Seoul Olympics. In 1986, he appeared in a film, Gymkata, which capitalized on his popularity and gymnastics skills.

Thomas's hopes for a comeback continued through the 1980s. In the spring of 1990, at the age of thirty-four, he began training seriously. He attended several meets in the winter of 1990–91, competing well enough to be considered for a berth on the US team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. At the age of thirty-six, in 1992, he was the oldest gymnast to ever make the national team. He did not, however, make the 1992 Olympic team.

At the time of his death at the age of sixty-four on June 5, 2020, following a stroke, Thomas, along with his wife, owned and helped run Kurt Thomas Gymnastics in Frisco, Texas. In addition to coaching, he had continued to do tours and exhibitions. He was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2003.

Summary

Through perseverance and hard work, Kurt Thomas developed from a boy on the streets of Miami into a world-class gymnast. Though he did not win at the Olympics, his consistently excellent performances in national and international competition were exemplary. His innovation is marked by the fact that three moves used in international competition are named for him. In addition, his personality and originality helped to transform and popularize men’s gymnastics.

Bibliography

Goldstein, Richard. "Kurt Thomas, Trailblazing Champion Gymnast, Dies at 64." The New York Times, 16 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/sports/kurt-thomas-dead.html. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.

Hickok, Ralph. “Thomas, Kurt.” A Who’s Who of Sports Champions: Their Stories and Records. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

Klein, Frederick C. “Thirtysomething Gymnast Tries Again.” The Wall Street Journal, September 21, 1990, p. A12.

Price, Nelson. Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers from Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman. Rev. ed. Cincinnati: Emmis Books, 2005.

Thomas, Kurt, and Kent Hannon. Kurt Thomas on Gymnastics. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980.