Hall of Fame
A native of Miami, Florida, Kurt Thomas joins collegiate and international wrestling great Bruce Baumgartner, as former Indiana State’s student-athletes to receive Institutional Great recognition in the Missouri Valley Conference Athletics Hall of Fame.
Recognized as one of the first athletes to put the American stamp on international gymnastics, Thomas was a 13-time NCAA All-America performer.
He was the NCAA all-around champion in 1977 and 1979, took NCAA parallel bars titles in 1977 and 1979 and was the NCAA horizontal bars champion in 1979. He was pivotal in Indiana State’s 1979 NCAA Championship team title.
At the 1975 Pan American Games, he collected a gold medal, two silver medals and two bronze medals. Thomas earned a place on the U.S. Olympic Team and competed at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal.
In 1978, Thomas was the first American male gymnast to win a gold medal in floor exercise in a world championship. In 1979, he became the first gymnast to receive the James E. Sullivan Award for best amateur athlete in the United States and earned two gold medals and three silver medals in international competition.
He was expected by many to win a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but the games were boycotted by the U.S. government.
Two gymnastic moves are named for him: the Thomas Flair, a pommel horse move actually created by Lloyd Larson at Arizona State University, and the Thomas Salto, his signature skill on floor exercise, a tucked 1.5 backward salto with 1.5 twist into a roll out (a difficult, dangerous skill even by today’s standards).
Thomas starred in the 1985 film Gymkata as an athlete sent by the U.S. government to compete in a deadly competition called The Game. Thomas also starred in the syndicated show True Confessions and has worked as a commentator for ESPN.
In 1996, Thomas married Rebecca Jones, a dancer who also choreographs gymnastic routines, and they have two children.
On Jan. 22, 1999, Thomas was inducted into the Indiana State University Athletics Hall of Fame as both an individual and a member of the national championship gymnastics squad. In 2003, he was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.