BUDAPEST, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Olympic gymnastics champion Szilveszter Csollany died at 51 here on Monday after spending weeks hospitalized battling COVID-19.

"We have to announce with deep sorrow that Olympic, World and European Champion gymnast Szilveszter Csollany has died at the age of 51," the Hungarian Gymnastics Association and the Hungarian Olympic Committee informed in a joint statement.

"The Olympic champion gymnast not only achieved outstanding results as an athlete but was also an excellent husband and a very good father," the statement added.

Csollany had been infected with the coronavirus at the beginning of December and was in serious condition on a ventilator in a hospital in Budapest.

The gymnast won the ring gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, retired in 2003 and recently worked as a coach in Austria.

The Olympic champion previously shared anti-vaxxer posts on his Facebook page.

"He didn't want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, but since he worked in Austria as a coach at a small club in Eisenstadt, where he was required to be protected, also because of the children, he vaccinated himself," according to local daily Blikk.

According to the same source, the athlete had received a single-dose vector vaccine, Janssen, just two weeks before he was admitted to the hospital. Enditem

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