Czech NOC News
15 Apr 2024 - Find here the latest news from the National Olympic Committee: events, courses, general assemblies and elections, trophies and much more.
15 April 2024 - The NOC continues to support the IOC’s ongoing support for athletes displaced by the war in Ukraine. In collaboration with the Czech Red Cross, the NOC has joined Sport Coach +, a regional initiative led by the Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF) together with International Federation of the Red Cross Psychosocial Centre (IFRC PSC). Eight members of the Czech Red Cross were trained and will subsequently pass on their experience and knowledge to 300 coaches to be able to create a safe environment and support for people affected by displacement. This is a year-long project involving eight countries in addition to Czechia and Ukraine itself: Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova (the countries with the largest number of Ukrainian refugees). ORF Director Jojo Ferris and ORF Senior Programmes Manager Jeroen Carrin attended the Prague training course. More detailed info here.
15 January 2024 - For the sixth time, an Olympic Festival will be held in Czechia. Visitors will be able to try over 50 different sports at Lake Most in northern Bohemia during the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and welcome the Czech national team back in the largest fan zone. Since the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, the Festival has been held during each edition of the Games – tens of thousands of fans and especially children have practised sports there, even when COVID restrictions were in place. Full details here. Furthermore, as a partner of the “Guidance to Achieve More Equal leadership in Sport” (GAMES) project, the NOC recently presented during a seminar a national action plan for 2024-29 focusing specifically on promoting gender equality in sport and its leadership. The GAMES project started in spring 2022 and is funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme. More details here.
12 September 2022 - The Czech NOC has informed us that two-time Olympic javelin champion Barbora Špotáková (photo) announced the end of her career in Prague, just a few hours after competing at the Diamond League final in Zurich. During an international career spanning 23 years, the Czech legend earned two Olympic gold medals (Beijing 2008 and London 2012) and one silver medal (Rio de Janeiro 2016), three world titles and a full set of European medals. She also set the current world record of 72.28m back in 2008. Full details here on the NOC website and here on the World Athletics website.
25 October 2021 - The Czech Fair Play Club, which is part of the Czech NOC, bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2020 on football coach Dušan Uhrin. The Czech Fair Play Club also gave a special award to hammer thrower Kateřina Šafránková, who started sewing face masks immediately after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Actor and athlete Alfred Strejček received an award for the promotion of fair play. Diplomas for saving lives were given to football player Ondřej Soběslav, who massaged the heart of a referee who had collapsed for 15 minutes, and to four young sprint canoeists. They saved the life of their 16-year-old friend who collapsed during the last training session prior to the National Championship. A total of eight awards were given in 2020, and ice-hockey legend Jaromír Jágr received a thank-you letter for fair play. More info here.
17 september 2021 - The Czech Olympic Committee celebrated Olympic Day with the traditional Olympic Run, moved due to pandemic to 8 September. More than 71,000 competitors from all over the Czech Republic, as well as pupils from 320 schools, took part in the largest running event in the country. In Prague, the race was started in Hvězda Park by actor Václav Neužil (photo), who played the legendary runner Emil Zátopek in the film of the same name. Zatopek was the starter of the first edition of the 1987 Olympic Run at Strahov. Runners also helped children from disadvantaged families to keep doing sports. Taking place on 8 September, exactly one month after the end of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, some Olympians who competed in Tokyo, such as Olympic shooting champion Jiří Lipták, gymnast Aneta Holasová, wrestler Artur Omarov and judoka David Klammert, attended the event, which was held in 89 different places throughout the country. More info here.
18 september 2020 - Olympic bronze medallist and world slalom champion, Alpine skier Šárka Strachová (photo), is the new Chair of the Czech Fair Play Club. She succeeded three-time Olympic cross-country skiing medallist Květa Pecková-Jeriová. The Club is part of the Czech Olympic Committee and each year recognises acts of fair play through awards. This year, the main award for life-long contribution to fair play went to ice hockey forward Vladimír Martinec, three-time world champion and double Olympic medallist in the 1970s, and also a successful coach. The main award for fair play in action went to racing driver Martin Prokop. More details here.
31 july 2020 -Judoka Lukáš Krpálek (photo) has received the Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský Prize for the second time in his career during a ceremony held at the Czech NOC headquarters. The 29-year-old judoka was elected by his fellow athletes, in view of his great performance in 2019, where he was crowned world champion in the over 100kg category during the Championships held in Tokyo in the famous Nippon Budokan Hall, which will host the Olympic tournament next year. Many athletes were present at the ceremony. More details here.
10 july 2020 - During the past few weeks, the Czech Olympic Foundation, which has already been supporting the sporting ambitions of children from disadvantaged backgrounds for seven years, intensified its activities with regard to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this enforced break from competition Olympic MTB cross-country champion Jaroslav Kulhavý came up with a special challenge, named his Everest Challenge, and helped to raise a significant amount of money for the Foundation. The Foundation also brought several athletes to 13 children’s homes and two centres for children with disabilities to distribute parcels full of paints, felt-tip pens, chalks and school necessities, and to practise sports with the children where possible (photo). Detailed info here at the Czech Olympic Committee website. In addition, the 2019 IOC ‘Sport and Sustainable Architecture’ Trophy has been presented to architects Petr Kolář and Aleš Lapka, founders of the architectural studio ADR, for their consistent promotion of the Olympic ideals and values through the Czech Houses at Olympic Games venues and during the Olympic Festivals in the Czech Republic. More info here.
16 march 2020 - On 13 March, the Czech NOC announced the loss of one of the greatest personalities in Czech sport. Dana Zátopková (photo) has died at the age of 97. She was a double Olympic medallist in the javelin throw, a two-time European champion and the wife of the other Czech sports legend, Emil Zátopek. She was the oldest Czech Olympian. She first competed at the Olympic Games London 1948, and in total she competed at four Olympic Games winning a gold medal in Helsinki 1952 and a silver in Rome 1960. With Emil Zátopek she was part of one of the most famous sporting couples in the world. Four years after their marriage, they both won Olympic gold in Helsinki. Zátopková remained involved in sport after her competitive retirement in 1962. She took up coaching, and in the years 1960-1972 was a member of the Women’s Commission of the International Athletics Federation (now World Athletics). In 1998 she was awarded the Olympic Order, and 15 years later she was presented with the Medal for Merit. More details here.
28 february 2020 - At a recent conference, the Czech NOC launched a new project entitled As Sustainable As Possible (ASAP). The aim is to motivate all engaged NOCs to create, implement and, where applicable, improve sustainability strategies, internally and externally, and thus become mentors for other sports organisations. The German, Danish and Finnish NOCs are already taking part in the project as mentors, and will pass on their experience of sustainability in sport to other countries. Besides the Czech NOC, the Hungarian and Slovakian NOCs have also joined the project, which has received IOC support. The conference participants agreed on the next steps and selected a logo to represent the project over the next three years. More details here.
07 february 2020 - Two-time Wimbledon champion, six-time Fed Cup winner and bronze medallist at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, Petra Kvitová (see photo), has received the Věra Čáslavská Award. Presented by the Czech Olympic Committee, the award was established with the aim of highlighting the activities and contribution of women in sport and the Olympic Movement. The trophy was presented to the tennis player at the Czech NOC headquarters by its President, IOC Member Jiří Kejval, and the Chair of the Commission for Equal Opportunities in Sport, Naďa Knorre. Full details here.
22 October 2019 - Several sports stars successfully completed the second year of a sports diplomacy programme run by the Czech NOC, including six-time Paralympic gold medallist Jiří Ježek; former basketballer Ilona Burgrová; Olympians Klára Křížová and Petra Juříčková; and representatives of other sports associations. This programme is organised in cooperation with the University of Economics, the Slovak NOC and other institutions. During the graduation ceremony, the athletes met students on the third edition of this programme, the first module of which was held on 5 and 6 October. During this module, Olympic bronze medallist Danka Bartekova, who is also an IOC Member and Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020, gave a presentation on her career in sports diplomacy. More info here.
28 june 2019 - The Czech Olympic Committee announced that over 75,000 participants, including over 60,000 children, took part in the Olympic Day races across the country. In total, there were 81 races across all 14 Czech regions. The T-Mobile Olympic Run, which is an annual set of races organised by the NOC, took place on 19 June. This year, there were more runners involved than ever before, demonstrating the impact of the COV’s ongoing effort to encourage healthy living and an active lifestyle. Full details here. Two days earlier, on 17 June, the Czech Olympic Committee celebrated its 120th anniversary with a special anniversary concert, which drew internationally renowned musicians and Czech Olympians, in the presence of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) President Janez Kocijančič. The anniversary celebrations will continue throughout the year with a book about the history of the NOC and Czech sports, along with a project called Stories of our Olympians, supported by the EOC. Full details here.
08 April 2019 - The Czech NOC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Russian International Olympic University (RIOU), with the aim of enhancing cooperation in the area of sports management. The MoU was signed by the NOC Vice-President, Roman Kumpost, and the RIOU Rector, Lev Belousov, with Olympic skier and NOC Athletes’ Committee member Klara Krizova (centre) also in attendance. The agreement – the latest development in the NOC’s sports diplomacy programme – aims to provide training and professional development to sports management specialists, based on advanced educational technologies and methods, and to facilitate the sharing of best practices in the areas of education, research and culture. More info here.
20 december 2018 - The Czech NOC welcomed more than 300 guests for the 10th edition of the Bridges for Trainers conference in Prague on 3 December. The conference, which has been organised by the NOC’s Coaches Academy since 2014, aims to use the experience of coaches, athletes and sports administrators from all over the world to inspire the next generation of Czech coaches. Coaches from national sports teams, members of over 30 International and National Sports Federations and representatives from over 100 elite clubs were in attendance, as were former Czech NBA star Jiří Welsch; former international football players Pavel Horváth, Radek Bejbl, Jan Suchopárek and Luboš Kozel; and Olympic bronze medallist in ice hockey Václav Prospal. More info here.
19 November 2018 - “Sport on the edge? The pressure for performance (not just) in elite sport” was the title of a conference organised by the Czech Olympic Committee with the support of the Senate of the Czech Parliament last month. The conference covered pressing issues facing the sports movement, including ensuring equal opportunities; greater promotion of women’s sport; the excessive pressure placed on children to perform and its psychological and health impacts; communication between elite athletes and coaches; and support for education programmes for athletes and coaches. The conference was organised by the NOC’s Committee for Equal Opportunities in Sport, under the auspices of the Women Sport International (WSI) organisation. Many Olympic medallists were in attendance, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Education and Sport, universities, members of the Athletes’ Committee and members the NOC’s Committee for Equal Opportunities in Sport. More details here.
6 November 2018 - An online interactive handbook to help NOCs to develop and organise Olympic festivals in their country was recently launched in Prague at a conference organised by the Czech NOC. The launch of this handbook concludes a two-year project entitled Sport Parks Inspired by the Olympics. The project was co-financed by the European Union’s Erasmus + programme and coordinated by the Czech NOC in collaboration with the IOC. It was developed in coordination with seven NOCs (Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands and Slovenia) and one regional authority in the Czech Republic, South Bohemia. The manual was launched by Czech Olympic coordinator Jana Janotová at the Global Sport Events Go Local conference which was attended by over 90 participants from 13 countries. The handbook is available at www.sportparks.com. More details here.
30 october 2018 - Some of the Czech Republic’s leading sports stars have signed up for the Czech Olympic Committee’s sports diplomacy course, which aims to prepare future sports officials by equipping them with the necessary skills, knowledge and international insight. The course was launched last year and recently concluded with a total of 16 students successfully completing the programme. Among the 16 students were world-famous sprint canoeist Jana Ježová and 2010 Triathlon World Cup winner Vendula Frintová. After the success of the first year’s course, a number of applicants have already registered for next year, including six-time Paralympic gold medallist Jiří Ježek, Olympian and former Alpine skier Klára Křížová, and Olympic basketball star Ilona Burgrová. The number of sports stars involved in the course reflects the NOC’s commitment to supporting its athletes’ transition into new positions following their sporting careers. More details here.
26 June 2018 - Record-breaking climber Adam Ondra (4th from right, first row) has been chosen to receive the Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský Award by his fellow Czech athletes, in recognition of his outstanding achievement last September, when he climbed the most difficult route in the world in Flatanger (Norway). The award was presented by rower Ondřej Synek, who won the trophy in 2015, in the presence of Czech Olympic Committee President and IOC Member Jiří Kejval, NOC Secretary General Petr Graclík, and Director of Sport Martin Doktor. Over 30 athletes and many personalities from Czech sport attended the ceremony. The Guth-Jarkovský Award is the most prestigious national sports award in the Czech Republic and is voted for by Czech athletes. More details at www.olympic.cz.