Sydney Olympics rings champion Csollany dead at 51

BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and gymnastics great Nadia Comaneci led the tributes to 2000 Sydney Olympics rings champion Szilveszter Csollany, who died on Monday aged 51.

Hungarian media said he had been hospitalised in December due to Covid-19 and had spent weeks on a ventilator.

"The Olympic champion gymnast achieved outstanding results not only as an athlete but also an excellent husband and a very good father," the Hungarian Gymnastics Federation said.

"God be with you, champion," Orban wrote in Hungarian on Facebook, while Romanian Comaneci, a five-time Olympic champion, said on Twitter the news was "so sad".

Csollany also won the rings at the 2002 world championships and earned silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.