Kyle Shewfelt

Infobox Gymnast
gymnastname= Kyle Shewfelt

---

imagesize=150px
caption=
fullname=
altname=
nickname=
country=CAN
formercountry=
birthdate= birth date and age|1982|05|06
birthplace=Calgary
hometown=
residence=
deathdate=
deathplace=
height=
discipline=MAG
level=
natlteam=
club=
gym=
collegeteam=
headcoach=
assistcoach=
formercoach=
choreographer=
music=
eponymousskills=
retired=
medaltemplates=

Kyle Keith Shewfelt (born May 6, 1982 in Calgary, Alberta) is a Canadian gymnast. His gold medal in the men's floor exercise competition at the 2004 Athens Olympics was the first medal ever by 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, amid much controversy, with Dragulescu taking the bronze medal despite a fall on his second vault. Canadian gymnastics officials protested the judging but, months later, no change was made in the vault medals despite the fact that four of the vault judges were eventually sanctioned. Many noted that Dragalescu is Romanian as is Adrian Stoica, who leads the Men's Technical Committee.

Bio

Born in Calgary, Shewfelt first began practicing gymnastics in 1988 influenced by a neighbour. His father was also an athlete playing for the Brandon Wheat Kings hockey 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 [http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b830/] . Kyle trained at Altadore Gymnastic Club under coach Kelly Manjak, from age 6 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.

Shewfelt's long-held goal of Olympic gold was endangered by an ankle injury in March 2004, but he made a full recovery in time for Athens. Before the Olympics Shewfelt has speculated on moving to Cirque du Soleil after his athletic career is over. A gold medal could easily open many other opportunities for him, however, as he has instantaneously became a household name in much of Canada.

In 2005 he acted as himself in the Hungarian made semi-biographical sports movie "Fehér tenyér" (White Palm).

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.

His focus increasingly directed towards the team competition, Canada later in 2006 finished second only to Olympic Champions Japan in the Pacific Alliance competition. At that event in Hawaii, Shewfelt won both Floor and Vault.

Next was World Championships in Denmark where Shewfelt led his team to a best ever team ranking (6th) and where he collected another World Championships medal (bronze on Floor Exercise).

In August 2007, Kyle fractured both knee caps on 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. [ [http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id=1372bd5e-8ed3-41ec-bdbb-e96130c43e84&k=2189 Shewfelt will have long road back from broken knees ] ]

In July 2008, Kyle had a successful comeback and was named, once again, to the 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. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/gymnastics/story/2008/07/08/gymnastics-team.html Shewfelt tops Canadian gymnastics selections ] ]

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 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. [http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=5b2bd975-42b3-4222-bb04-97f0dabe2cf7] He did, however, perform a new vault flawlessly on day one of the Olympic Games. The new move was ratified by the judges and subsequently named the "Shewfelt vault". Overall Shewfelt also received the highest execution score (B score) for the two vaults performed (9.75). After his exit from the Olympics, Kyle became a guest commentator on artistic gymnastics for CBC Television's Olympic coverage. [ CBC Television, "Olympic Prime", 15 Aug 2008 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.i-needtoknow.com/kyle/index.html Kyle Shewfelt Official Website]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/sports/commonwealth/athletes/shewfelt_kyle.html Athlete bio on CBC.ca]