By Mike Cohen
Olympic gold medalist and former Culver City resident Hal Connolly, who captured the heart of young Olga Fikotova, the gold medalist in the discus at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, died last week following a fainting spell after working out.
He was 79.
The six-time world-record-setting hammer thrower competed in the 1956 Games and the next three Olympics.
Hal and Olga’s love story was chronicled in The Rings of Destiny and their children became sensational athletes as well. They lived across from Lindberg Park.
Culver City resident Tom Mills, at age 15, met Connolly at the local YMCA and said, “I never have seen anyone work out with the passion and fire that he brought to bear. His left arm was withered from his early youth and Hal had taken a lot of ridicule over the years. When you saw him work out, you just were in wonder of this man’s determination.
“Because of everything that he endured and his unrelenting will to be treated as a man — not a handicapped man — he is one of a handful of the all-time Olympian greats who were giants in their sport and in life.”
