He shocked the whole country when, on February 24, 2022, at the age of 51 Szilveszter Csollány passed away. The Olympic champion gymnast was hospitalized with a coronavirus infection, they fought for his life for two months, but they could not save him. Exatlonos’ friends already left for the All Star season with Szilas in a critical state. Business they competed on rock-hard obstacle coursesthat they tried to exclude their worries, but in the evenings the Champions often talked about their friend: what could happen to him, they trusted that when they got home, they could hug him again…
The Champions of the second season of Exatlon, with Szilveszter Csollány in the center, became friends (Photo: TV2)
According to the strict international rules of the sports reality, the players have to deal with the obstacle courses in complete isolation, they have to live in isolation from the outside world while they are in competition. They are not allowed to use their mobile phones, and the crew members are not allowed to share any current news with them, so they could not tell the team members active in the competition about their friend’s death. They were confronted with the sad news only after arriving in Budapest.
“I didn’t realize right away that Szilas had passed away, the painful reality hit me a few days later,” Zozo Kempf recalled. – While we were out with the All Star season, we remembered a lot, since our friendship started there, we competed together with him, he let us be close to him.
I met an extremely kind and very honest person in him, who provided me and us with advice, who also helped me a lot mentally when we competed in the same team in the second season. The members of that Champion team formed eternal friendships, we met even after the show and kept in touch by phone. It was a great experience when Szilas invited us to his place, we spent the whole weekend together, and then the team came to visit me in Gyula. No one can take these memories away from us!
“I’m grateful for your friendship”
Zozo he also talked about how it’s still surreal for him to have competed with the Olympic champion.
It’s still surreal to me that I, the little extreme bmx rider, am talking to Szilas, that we compete in the same team, that we became friends, that’s the gift of life!
