Steve Hug

Steve Hug
Steve Hug
Country represented	United States
Born	May 20, 1952 (age 72); Highland, Illinois, U.S.

Steven Keith "Steve" Hug (born May 20, 1952) is an American former artistic gymnast who was active in the 1960s and 1970s. Hug competed in two Olympic Games and the 1974 World Championships.^[1]

Born in Highland, Illinois, Hug made his first Olympic team in 1968 at the age of 16, making him the youngest person to represent the U.S. gymnastics team at the event. He was the first American to reach the Olympic individual all-around finals, in the first Olympics that featured the competition.^[2] Hug finished the individual all-around in 36th place, and was a member of the U.S. men's all-around team that posted a seventh-place performance.^[1] The following year, he won the all-around gold medal at the national championships, the first of three all-around titles he earned.^[1]

Hug spent his senior high school year at a school in Japan while training in gymnastics at Nihon University.^[3] He later attended Stanford University, where he won the all-around title at the NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships three consecutive years from 1972 to 1974 and the parallel bars in 1973 and 1974.^[2]^[4] At the 1972 Summer Olympics, he reached the individual all-around finals, and ended the competition in 31st place. In addition, Hug was again on the all-around team, which finished 10th in the event.^[1] In 1974, Hug received the Nissen-Emery Award as the top senior college gymnast.^[5]

Hug is a 1995 inductee into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame.^[2] CrossFit's Greg Glassman has credited him for providing him with "inspiration" while he was growing up.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Steve Hug". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Hug, Steve". U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
^ "A Smile-In After a Mouth-Off". Sports Illustrated. April 16, 1973. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
^ "National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Championships" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
^ "Nissen-Emery Award". USA Gymnastics. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
^ Burton, E.M. "'None of This Would Exist Without You'". CrossFit Journal. Retrieved March 27, 2016.