Kyle Keith Shewfelt (born May 6, 1982 in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

) is a

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gymnast Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...

. His gold medal in the men's floor exercise competition at the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

was the first-ever medal for a Canadian in an artistic gymnastics event and was the first Canadian gold of the 2004 Olympics. He also has a vault named after him. Shewfelt was considered a medal threat in advance of the Athens games. In the end, Shewfelt finished first on floor and fourth on vault.

Gymnastics career

Born in Calgary, he first began practicing gymnastics in 1988 influenced by a neighbour. His father was also an athlete playing for the

Brandon Wheat Kings The Brandon Wheat Kings are a Canadians, Canadian major junior ice hockey team based in Brandon, Manitoba. Founded in 1936, the team was for three decades a successful junior team playing principally in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. The Whe ...

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

team. While Shewfelt was a skilled hockey player he turned to gymnastics at an early age. He attended Calgary's National Sport School in order to complete his high school education, while pursuing his Olympic plans with fellow athletes at the school Kyle trained at Altadore Gymnastic Club under coach Kelly Manjak, from age six up until the 2004 Olympics. Manjak married in 2004 and moved following the Olympics to Ontario. Shewfelt stayed in Calgary, training with coach Tony Smith at the University of Calgary. In 2000 Kyle was unexpectedly, due to his young age, selected for the Sydney Olympics. He competed in the individual floor and vault event qualifications in ranks of 12 and 26, respectively, and did not qualify to the finals in either. He caught the attention of judges performing a new vault, a Yurchenko with two and one half twists. The new move was ratified by the judges and subsequently named the ''Shewfelt'' vault. Shewfelt's long-held goal of Olympic gold was endangered when he severely bruised the talus bone in his ankle in March 2004, but he made a full recovery in time for Athens. Before the Olympics, Shewfelt speculated on moving to

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after his athletic career is over. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

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, there was some controversy when Shewfelt was marginally edged out by

Marian Drăgulescu Marian Drăgulescu (born 18 December 1980 in Bucharest) is a former Romanian artistic gymnast. During his senior gymnastics career he won 31 medals at Olympic Games at World and European Championships, of which eight are gold medals at the World ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

with an average combined score of 9.612 to the bronze medal in the individual vault final by 0.013 points despite Drăgulescu falling in his second vault and Shewfelt completing two comparatively well-executed vaults with an average combined score of 9.599. In 2005 Shewfelt played Kelly Manjak in the Hungarian made film White Palms. In 2006 Shewfelt made a comeback to the international scene, leading the Canadian team to a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, collecting bronze on Floor and gold on Vault for himself. That same year, Shewfelt helped his team to a second-place finish at the Pacific Alliance competition. In the individual events, Shewfelt placed first on vault and floor. Next was the world championships in Denmark where Shewfelt led his team to a best ever team ranking (6th) and where he collected another world championship medal (bronze on floor exercise). In August 2007, Kyle fractured both of his tibias in a fluke landing training for floor exercise just prior to the world championships in Germany. Withdrawing from the event, Kyle hoped to heal and get back into training in sufficient time to make a bid for the 2008 Summer Olympic team. After 11 months of intense rehab and recovery, Kyle was named to his third Canadian Olympic team. He was selected to represent Canada in Beijing after proving that he was in top form at a test competition capping a week-long training camp in Calgary. At the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

, Kyle competed in the preliminary artistic gymnastics round. Shewfelt was unable to reach the top eight in either of his specialties (the cut-off for admission to the Olympic finals), finishing ninth in vault and 11th in floor. Shewfelt received the highest execution score (B score) for the two vaults he performed (9.75). After his exit from the Olympics, Kyle became a guest commentator on artistic gymnastics for

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's Olympic coverage. On May 21, 2009, Shewfelt announced on his blog that he was retiring from competition. "After much thought and consideration, I have come to the decision that it's time to hang up the grips, put away the stinky gym shoes, remove the singlet, take my hands out of the chalk bucket and start embarking on new journeys," Shewfelt wrote. He would take on an ambassador role with Gymnastics Canada to promote this sport.

Later life

During the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, he served as a gymnastics analyst for the

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-led Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. In 2018, he was working as a gymnastics coach. In 2021, he published an autobiography, ''Make it Happen''.

Routine skills

Vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosur ...

: 2½-Twisting Yurchenko (The ''Shewfelt''); Double-Twisting Tsukahara *

Floor A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from wikt:hovel, simple dirt in a cave to many layered surfaces made with modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal or any other material that can support the ex ...

: (2004) 1½ Whip, Full Twist, Rudi; 2½ Twist, Front Layout, 1¾ Front; Full Twisting Back handspring; Layout Arabian with Full Twist; Double Twisting Double Back (2008) Arabian Double Piked Front; 1½ Twist to a Full Twist, Front Layout with 1¾ Front Dive; 2½ Twist to a 1.5 Twist, Layout Arabian with Full Twist, Double Twisting Double Back *

Horizontal Bar The horizontal bar, also known as the high bar, is an apparatus used by male gymnasts in artistic gymnastics. It traditionally consists of a cylindrical metal (typically steel) bar that is rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a syst ...

: Deff, Tkatchev, piked stalder, Full pirouette, Double Twisting Double Layout

Competitive history

2000 season

2004 season

2006 season

2008 season

References

External links