Joe Kotys

Joe Kotys
Joe Kotys
	Kotys in 1949
Personal information
Full name	Joseph Kotys
Country represented	United States
Born	October 31, 1925; Olyphant, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	August 21, 2012 (aged 86); Florida, U.S.
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics
Gym	Swiss Turners
College team	Kent State Golden Flashes
Medal record
Representing United States
Men's artistic gymnastics
Pan American Games
Representing Kent State Golden Flashes
NCAA Championships

Joseph Kotys (October 31, 1925 – August 21, 2012) was an American artistic gymnast. He 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]