Famous Czech sportsmen
Emil Zátopek, Jan Železný, Jaromír Jágr, Dominik Hašek, Pavel Nedvěd, Petr Čech, Ivan Lendl, Martina Navrátilová... Who wouldn’t know these athletes?
Decathlon
Tomáš Dvořák
(born May 11, 1972)
After a series of excellent results in junior representation (second place at the European Championship in Solun in 1991 and junior record of the Czech Republic in decathlon) came further sport success in his sports career. In 1995, he won second place at the World Hall Championship in Barcelona; in 1996, second place in the European Hall Championship in Stockholm; in the same year, he came in third at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. On top of that, Dvořák is a triple world champion of 1997 from Athens, of 1999 from Sevilla and of 2001 from Edmonton. Currently he has begun to focus on coaching.
Roman Šebrle
(born November 26, 1974)
Sebrle competed for a long time with Tomas Dvořák for the No. 1 position in world decathlon. He won third place in the World Hall Championship in 1999 in heptathlon in Maebas, and in 2000 he won silver in multicontest at the Olympic Games in Sydney. His biggest current success is the gold medal from 2004 in decathlon at the Olympic Games in Athens, to which he added a new Olympic record with his sum total of 8,893 points and thus cut the 20-year reign of British champion Thompson. In addition, the Czech decathlete holds the world record of 9,026-point value. Sebrle is the first decathlete in the history who managed to surpass the magic 9,000-point border. After Jan Železný and Jarmila Kratochvílova, he is the third Czech whose performance is at the head of the world charts.
Šebrle confirmed his dominance in European
decathlon at the last European Championships. In 2006 he won the gold medal at
the outdoor event in Göteborg; a year later he repeated the result at the
indoor championships in Birmingham.
Water sports
Štěpánka Hilgertová
(born April 10, 1968)
Her kayaking career started in 1980, and in 1985 she won third place in water slalom at the Czechoslovak Championship. Her biggest sport successes include gold at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and in Sydney in 2000. , She won gold at the World Championship in Seu d´ Urgell, in 1999 and repeated her performance four years later at Augsburg. She was also victorious at the European Championships in Mezzano.
Martin Doktor
(born 1974)
Kayaker Doktor won the junior World Championship (or junior World Cup) in 1992. In 1996, he became at two-time Olympic champion at the Atlanta Olympics in category C1 in the 1,000 and 500 meters. After this success, he was awarded the title of the Sportsman of the Year in 1996. During his career, Doktor has won practically every prize from the Olympics to the European Championships and World Championships, as well as total points in the World Cup.
Athletics
Emil Zátopek
(1922 – 2000)
Endurance runner, the most famous Czech sportsman, quadruple Olympic Champion, the best world sportsman of 1949, 1951 and 1952, multiple-time world-record holder and holder of several titles of European and world champion. In 1997 he was voted the best athlete of the 20th century and the Olympian of the century.
His first 5,000-meter run took place in October 1943, and the following year he achieved his first Czech record - in the 2,000 meters, completed in 5:33.4 minutes. In September 1944, as the first Czech athlete, he cut the border of 15 minutes on the 5,000-meter track. (After the war, in May 1954, on a 5-kilometer track, he set the world record in Paris with a time of 13:57.2 minutes.) He ran a double track for the first time in 1948 in Budapest. For 10 years he was the leader in the world charts, beating the world record five times, and as the first athlete in the world he ran this distance in less than 29 minutes in June 1954 in Brussels, with a time of 28:54.2. He holds more than 50 Czechoslovak records, 18 of which were also world records. To the London 10-kilometer Olympic gold he added silver from the 5-kilometer distance run. In Helsinki, he won three gold medals: first he won in the 10 kilometer race, then the 5-kilometer, and he even triumphed in the marathon, which he ran there for the first time. His medal collection was completed with the titles of European Champion in1950 for the 5- and 10-kilometer distances. In 1975, he was awarded the Fair Play prize of Pierre de Coubertine by the International Committee of UNESCO, the first Czech sportsman to win such an award.
Dana Zátopková
(born 1922)
Javelin thrower and wife of Emil Zátopek. She played handball for a long time, achieving the master title in collective sports in 1949. At that time, she was also the republic champion in throwing the javelin, even though she had not done this sport for long. During her successful athletic career she broke 17 Czechoslovak records.
The peak of her career was the Olympic Games in Helsinki, where she threw 50.47 meters. She added primacy even at the European Championship in Bern in 1954, and again four years later in Stockholm. A physically perfect athlete, she participated in next two Olympic Games, coming in fourth in 1956 in Melbourne, and she won Olympic silver in Rome at her last big contest in 1960. For her contribution to athletics and the Olympic ideology, Dana Zátopková was awarded the Olympic Order of Merit in 1988.
Jan Železný
(born June 16, 1966)
This javelin thrower holds six world records and four Olympic medals, three of which are gold. He was declared the best athlete of Europe in the years 1996 and 2000, and even the best athlete of the world in 2000. In the years 1993 and 1995, he was declared Czech Sportsman of the Year after the Olympic Games in Sydney. He won the prestigious “World Athlete of the
Year” award in 2000 after his triumph at the Sydney Olympics. He has also been declared several times also Czech Athlete of the Year. His last world record of 98.48 meters in 1996, which he created at the contest in Jena, has yet to be beaten. At the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, he was elected by his colleagues to the Commission of Sportsmen of the International Olympic Committee.After ending his professional career, he
turned to coaching. He now coaches a three-member team of young javelin
throwers.
Helena Fibingerová
(born 1949)
She regularly defended the Czechoslovak colors in shot-putting from the end of the '60s. In 1973, she won her first indoor European Championship in Rotterdam, a title that was repeated a year later in Göteborg. In total, she is an eight-time indoor European champion (she won the first indoor title in 1973 in Rotterdam and her last in 1985 in Athens), three-time world-record holder on open grounds, and also the six-time indoor record holder. She has been the world indoor record holder for an unbelievable 29 years when in1977, she surpassed the distance of 22.5 in Jablonec.
She finished third at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montréal. However, her life's dream came true in 1983 in Helsinki, in her final attempt of 21.05 meters, where she won gold and the title of world champion. Today, she is a member of the Czech Television Counsel, manager of the Czech Athletics company and, together with her husband, the owner of a bakery in Uherský Ostroh.
Jarmila Kratochvílová
(born 1951)
The most successful Czech runner of all time. She won her first domestic title in 1974. In her sports career, Kratochvílová achieved many excellent results. At the 1980 Olympic games she won the silver medal. Her best year was in 198 whenKratochvílová became world champion in the 400-meter and 800-meter events and then went on to set world records for both distances. Her personal best of 1:53:28 in the 800 meters is still a world record. When she finished her active career, she started to work as a trainer. She is the co-author of an autobiography, Waiting.
Šárka Kašpárková
(born 1971)
Triple-jumper. While in elementary school, she started playing basketball, later followed by the high jump, in which she became the Czech record holder. However, she finally settled on the triple jump, in which she won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. A year later, she became World Champion in Athens. Her gold-medal jump of 15.20 meters is both a Czech record and among the top six jumps in the world.
Ice hockey
Jaromír Jágr
(born February 15, 1972)
Jágr premiered in the highest Czech contest when he was only 16. He headed straight to the top of his career when he was only 18 at the World Cup in Switzerland in 1990, after which he was chosen by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990 as the fifth player in the rank. Jágr, who was not even 20 at the time, managed to reach the Stanley Cup in his first season and did the same one year later. During the strike of the 1994–95 season, he played again for his hometown Kladno in the Czech Republic, to which he contributed 22 points in 11 matches. In a shortened season he shot 32 goals, and with 77 points finally won his first Art Ross Trophy.
The year after was the best in his individual career so far: 149 points thanks to 62 goals and 87 assists, which is the world record for right wingers. In the Czech national uniform he won the Olympic gold at the Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998. The 1998–99 season, when he became captain of the Penguins, was extraordinarily successful for him. With the credit of 127 points he won his third Art Ross Trophy by 21 full points. He removed the king Hašek from the throne and thus obtained the Hart Trophy for the most valuable player of the season. On top of that, he is a double holder of the Lester Pearson Trophy. At the time of NHL exclusion in the 2004/2005 season, he played in the Czech Republic for Kladno. He raised a wave of “Jagrmania” - the matches of the Kladno team were always sold out. Currently, Jágr plays for the New York Rangers. At the beginning of 2006, he became the most successful European ever to play in the NHL, with 1,400 points.
Ivan Hlinka
(1950–2004)
Hockey player and coach. Hlinka is a three-time world champion (1972, 1976, 1977) At the Olympic Games in Sapporo in 1972 he brought bronze while four years later he helped Czechoslovakia take silver in Innsbruck in 1976. He also played at the first Canadian Cup in 1976, where he was declared best forward.
His start in the NHL at the end of his career was successful, too. He played a very important role in an unexpected match of Vancouver for the Stanley Cup in 1982.
When his hockey career was over, he started to work as a coach. Led by Hlinka, the Czech national team climbed to the very top at the Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998 and won also the title of the world champions the following year. After that, Hlinka became one of the two first Europeans who became coaches of NHL teams in 2000. He settled on the Pittsburgh Penguins team.
In 2002, Ivan Hlinka was welcomed into the IHF Hockey Hall of Fame and was supposed to lead the Czech national team again, at the 2004 World Cup, but was killed tragically in a car accident.
Dominik Hašek
(born 1965)
Hašek has played for clubs in Pradubice and Jihlava in 1990 left to play in the NHL where he played for the Chicago Black Hawks, the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators. At the beginning of the 2006/2007 season he returned to play for Detroit.
Hašek has won a silver medal at the World Championship in 1983 and a gold medal at the Olympic games in Nagano in 1998. He won the NHL’s Hart Trophy for Most Valuable Player in 1997 and 1998 and has won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goal tender six times.
Patrik Eliáš
(born 1976)
Hockey player, double holder of the Stanley Cup and currently the captain of the New Jersey Devils. On August 31, 2006 Eliáš became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in the Czech Republic.
Skiing
Šárka
Záhrobská
(born February 11, 1985)
The Czech
Republic now claims a
world champion in alpine skiing. Šárka Záhrobská won the 2007 World
Championships in the slalom event held in Aare, Sweden. She also added to the
medals she collected in 2005 when she became junior world champion at
Bardonecchia and then won a bronze medal in the women’s race. Záhrobská had
much success during the 2006/2007 World Cup season when she finished third
overall in the slalom discipline.
Kateřina
Neumannová
(born February 2, 1973)
The Czech cross-country skier has collected six Olympic medals and five World
Championship medals during her career. Her most coveted medal came at the 2006
Winter Olympics in Turin
when she won gold in the 30 kilometer freestyle event. Neumannová was world
champion in both 2005 and 2007 winning the 10 kilometer freestyle events in Oberstdorf and Sapporo, respectively. During her career,
Neumannová was on the medal podium a total of 48 times. In 2006 she was named
as Sportsperson of the year. She took third place in the overall World Cup
rankings for the 2006/2007 season. She finished her professional career in
March 2007 after a race in Falun.
Football
Pavel Nedvěd
(born 1972)
Nedvěd , winner of the Golden Ball as Europe’s best football player in 2003, initially played for Dukla Prague football club in 1991. He spent the next four years with the Sparta Praha team, with which he won the championship title (1992–95). He then went on to Italy’s Seria A where he played five seasons in Lazio Roma (he won in Copa Italia in the years 1997–98, he won in Italian Supercup in 1998, 1999 and 2000). He currently plays for Juventus Torino.
He played in European Championships in England and Portugal. He played in the 2006 World Championships in Germany, during which the Czech Republic
did not advance out of its group. In 2003 he was declared the best sportsman of the year in the Czech Republic, and the best footballer in Europe (the Golden Ball award). He has also been named the best foreigner in Seria A and the best half in the Champions league. He didn’t leave Juventus even after the team was relegated to second division play after a bribery affair. In a warm-up match against Serbia on August 16, 2006 he ended his national career.
Petr Čech
(born 1982)
In 2002 Čech helped the Czech Republic become European champions at the European Under 21 Championships. Later he showed an excellent performance in the Czech football representation and participated in the excellent performance of the Czech Republic at the Euro 2004 contest in Portugal, where the Czech team ended third. Currently, he is No. 1 goalie in the English club Chelsea.
In the fall of 2006 Čech was seriously injured
during Chelsea’s Premier League game against Reading. After a
collision with an opposing player, he had to undergo an operation for a fractured
skull. In February of 2007 he returned to the pitch.
Speed skating
Martina
Sáblíková
(born May 27, 1987)
In two years, Martina Sáblíková raised the profile of speed skating in the
Czech Republic as a respected sport in spite of having to train abroad. There
are no speed skating rinks in the Czech
Republic. She attracted a
lot of attention at the Winter Olympic in Turin
after finishing fourth in the 3000 meter event. She hit her stride in 2007 when
she won the combined event at the European Championships, took first place on
the long track in the World Cup, became a two-time world champion and set new
world records in the 5 and 20 kilometer disciplines.
Figure-skating
Alena (Aja) Vrzánová
(born 1931)
Figure skater. In autumn 1946, she went to train in London. In January 1947, she won the Republic Championship, was sixth at the European Championship and seventh at the World Championship. One year later, she won bronze at the Prague European Championship, and she was fifth at the World Cup in Davos and the Olympic Games in Saint Moritz. She won the World Championship for the first time in 1949 in Paris. In January 1950, she won the republic champion title for the third time. In Norway, she won the European Championship and was getting ready for the World Championship in London, which she won as well. The double world champion was granted political asylum in England. In April 1950, she went to the United States to be engaged in the Ice Follies, where she skated three years. She skated for the next 13 years in the Ice Capades.
In 2003 Vrzáňová was proclaimed an Exceptional Czech Woman in the World by the Czech Senate.
Tennis
Jaroslav Drobný
(1921–2001)
This all-round sportsman initially focused on ice hockey, where he achieved excellent results. In 1947, he won first place at the World Championship in Prague and in 1948 was second at the Olympic Games in Saint Moritz.
In the stressful conditions after 1948, he decided to emigrate. He was offered citizenship by Egypt in 1949, whose colors he defended in tennis from 1950.
Drobný won the most important world tournament played on clay at Roland Garros in 1951 and 1952, when he beat the South African Sturgess and the Australian Sedgman respectively. However, his life's dream came true Friday, July 2, 1954, when he beat the Australian Rosewall in the final of Wimbledon by: 13:11, 4:6, 6:2 and 9:7.
Ivan Lendl
(born July 3, 1960)
The Czech American has become an icon of men’s tennis. In 1980, he was, as a 20-year-old at that time, a member of the Czechoslovak team a team that won the Davis Cup. Lendl is in third place for the number of consecutive weeks spent as the World No. 1. From 1985 to 1988 he held on to this ranking for 158 weeks. In total, Lendl spend a combined time of 270 weeks as World No. 1. He has won both the French Open and the U.S. Open three times, while winning the Australian Open twice in 1989 and 1990. The only victory he has never achieved is Wimbledon. After his tennis career, Lendl is successfully pursuing golf.
Martina Navrátilová
(born October 8, 1956)
With twenty Wimbledon titles to her credit, Martina Navrátilová will always remain a tennis legend. Her career includes 59 Grand Slam titles. In 2006, Navrátilová definitively ended her tennis career.
Nicole
Vaidišová
(born April 23, 1989)
Nicole Vaidišová trained at Mick Boletieri’s prestigious tennis academy in Florida. Under the
guidance of her step-father Aleš Kodat and in spite of her young age, she soon
found herself climbing into the top-ten of women’s tennis. During her short
career, she has already won six WTA tournaments. She has advanced to the
semi-finals of two Grand Slam tournaments: In 2006 on the clay courts of Roland
Garros and in 2007 at the Australian Open. Vaidišová is the top player on the Czech Republic’s
Fed Cup team.
Freestyle skiing: Arials
Aleš Valenta
(born 1973)
In the finals of the Olympic contest in Salt Lake City, Aleš Valenta won a gold medal. In the second round, he completed the most difficulty jump – a triple flip with five twists. He became the first professional acrobat on skis to jump a triple flip in an official contest. On top of that, Valenta can do even a quadruple flip while jumping into water. At the Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998, he was fourth. Since the summer 2001, he is, together with his trainer Pavel Landa, part of the European international team.