Jan Gajdoš

Jan Gajdoš
Jan Gajdoš in 1928
Personal information
Born(1903-12-27)27 December 1903
Brno, Austria-Hungary
Died9 November 1945(1945-11-09) (aged 41)
Brno, Czechoslovakia
Gymnastics career
DisciplineMen's artistic gymnastics
Country
represented
Czechoslovakia
Medal record
Representing Czechoslovakia
Olympic Games
1928 Amsterdam Team
World Championships
1926 Lyon Team
1926 Lyon Pommel Horse
1926 Lyon Parallel Bars
1930 Luxembourg Team
1930 Luxembourg All-Around
1930 Luxembourg Pommel Horse
1930 Luxembourg Rings
1931 Paris All-Around
1934 Budapest Team
1938 Prague Team
1938 Prague All-Around
1938 Prague Floor Exercise

Jan Gajdoš (27 December 1903 – 19 November 1945) was a Czech gymnast, representing Czechoslovakia. He competed in two Olympic Games and five gymnastics World Championships.

Competitive career

His first Olympics was in 1928, where he took silver in the team competition. Switzerland won the competition. Individually, he won no medals, but he finished fourth in the horizontal bar, and eighth in the rings. At his next Olympics, in 1936, he again won no medals, but the team finished fourth in the team competition.

At the World Championships, he took three golds in the team competition; in 1926, 1930 and 1938.[1] He also took a team silver in 1934. Individually, he took two silver medals in 1926. In 1930, he took overall silver, behind Josip Primožič, and also won bronze in the pommel horse and rings.

In 1934, he won no individual medals, but took sixth place overall.[2] In his last World Championships, in 1938, he won gold both in the individual all-around and floor exercise, as well as top-8 place finishings on 4 of the 5 other apparatuses.

Legacy

An active member of the Sokol organization, during World War II he was an active member of Sokol resistance group. He died shortly after the end of World War II, after being put on a death march by the Nazi Germans.[3]

In 15–16 November 2008, an international gymnastics event was arranged in memory of Gajdoš; Jan Gajdoš Memorial 2008 in Brno.[4]

References

  1. ^ Sport-komplett.de - World Championship competitors
  2. ^ GYMmedia - All-around World Champions and medallists Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  4. ^ Jan Gajdoš Memorial 2008