Kyle Shewfelt
FameRank: 4

"Kyle Keith Shewfelt" is a Canada/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.

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 ice hockey/hockey team. While Shewfelt was a skilled hockey player he turned to gymnastics at an early age. He attended Calgary's National Sport School (Canada)/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.

More Kyle Shewfelt on Wikipedia.

I felt so comfortable out there competing today, and it comes down to having four good teammates.

259

I keep thinking back to Commonwealths in 2002 and remembering what a remarkable experience that was, doing so well with our team and winning a couple of individual medals. I really feel like my success in Manchester set a good stepping stone towards Athens.

205

We supported each other the whole way and, as the competition went on, we knew we were going to win.

191

I'm always nervous before any competition and I guess I'm 18 months away but I was nervous because I have a lot of expectation to do well and I wanted to show that I'm still capable of winning world and Olympic medals.

106

Our goal coming into this was to get that team gold that we were so close to in 2002. It wasn't a personal goal, it was a team goal. I think that's why I was more relaxed.

83