Sport in Czech Republic

Asmall, strategically located country in Central Europe with a population of 10 million, the Czech Republic came into existence in 1993, the result of political changes that began with the disintegration of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Its mountains and plentiful streams and rivers, and the regular alternation of four seasons, permit a wide spectrum of summer and winter sports.The development of sports in Czech lands can be divided into four stages that reflect the dramatic political and social changes that have significantly affected all spheres of life since 1918.

The First Stage

The period leading to the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia after World War I comprises the beginning of the Olympic movement, the fight for an independent state, and the development of sports societies in Czech lands. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when these lands were an integral part of Austria, sports such as horseback riding and fencing were performed mostly by the rich and socially influential to mark various celebrations.

An important milestone in the establishment of sports societies was the founding of the Sokol (Falcon) Society in 1862. As early as in 1871, a total of 131 Sokol clubs were active in Czech lands. The principal idea of its founder and chief representative, Miroslav Tyrs, lay in the belief that “in a healthy body dwells a healthy soul.” The Sokol movement fueled an intense national feeling that furthered the establishment of an independent Czech state.

The enthusiasm for sports development in Czech lands facilitated efforts to establish and restore the Olympic movement. One of the first members of a new twelve-member International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894 was the Czech representative Jiri Guth- Jarkovsky, who in 1896 established the Czech Olympic Committee, whose objective was to strive for independent Czech participation in the Olympics. The first Czech team, represented by five athletes, participated in the second Olympic Games, held in Paris in 1900, and Frantisek Janda-Suk, a discus thrower, won a second place and introduced a new throwing technique—the turn.

From then on, despite the numerous hardships that followed the political integration of Czech lands with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Czech Olympic Committee remained committed to its objectives and participated wholeheartedly in the international Olympic movement. From 1885 to 1913 a number of sports associations and societies grew up spontaneously (for example, the Czech Athletic Amateur Union, which encompassed not only cycling and rowing, but also the Football Association, the Ski Association of the Czech Kingdom, the Czech Ice Hockey Association, canoeing, and fencing).This period lay the foundation for organized sporting activities in the Czech lands.

The Second Stage

The second stage encompasses the period between the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 and the Communist coup of 1948, though between 1939 and 1945 it was interrupted by the German occupation of the Republic.The young democratic state created ideal conditions for the rapid and unhindered development of sports and the activities of sports societies. The physical education system in the thenfree Czechoslovakia was marked by the proliferation of several independent sports organizations. Concurrently, the democratic Czechoslovakia saw the political polarization of these sports societies and associations—for example, the Association of Workers’ Sport Clubs was left-wing, while Sokol was democratic. The activities of sports societies based on religious principles led to the founding of the Orel (Eagle) sports society.

The number of registered gymnasts and athletes in the 1930s totaled about 1.2 million. Sports and physical education activities developed rapidly and successfully, international contacts were renewed, and most importantly, the spread of the Olympic movement was accompanied by the increasing participation of Czechoslovak athletes in the Olympic Games. On the Sokol premises, a unique phenomenon developed—Sokol gatherings (sokolské slety) in which a huge number of gymnasts gathered to exercise together. As many as thirty thousand gymnasts might participate in one gymnastic set.

Fascism and the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Germany in 1939 suppressed sports development. Sports societies and associations were dissolved, and the many Sokol members who engaged in the resistance movement were ruthlessly pursued and killed. After the end of World War II, sports activities were restored, and the growing influence of the Communists after 1948 laid the groundwork for another wave of development of sports in Czechoslovakia.

The Third Stage

The third stage in the development of sports relates to the period from 1948 to 1989, when all activities in all spheres of social life were brought under central control by the Communists. In the sports domain, a new public authority was established, the National Board for Physical Education and Sports, whose objectives were to unify and control all sporting activities, beginning with national representation teams and including spontaneous individual sporting activities. Sokol, as the largest democratic organization, was gradually transformed into a body with an ideological direction dictated by the new regime. However, the difficulty of subordinating Sokol led to the setting up in 1957 of a volunteer organization, which was constantly under the system’s control, the Czechoslovak Association of Physical Education (CSTV—Ceskoslovensky svaz telesne vychovy). Its emphasis was on the international representation of the country in sports.

Key Events in Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia Sports History

• 1862 The Sokol Society is founded. 
• 1896 The Czech Olympic Committee is established. 
• 1900 The Czech team competes in the Olympics for the first time. 
• 1885–1913 Many sports associations are founded. 
• 1918 Czechoslovakia becomes an independent nation and sports become politicized. 
• 1939 Sports is repressed by the Nazis. 
• 1948 Sports comes under the central control of the Communist government. 
• 1957 Czechoslovak Association of Physical Education is founded. 
• 1980 Czechoslovakia wins the gold medal in soccer at the Olympics. 
• 1989 Communist rule ends and independent sports organizations are revitalized. 
• 1993 Czechoslovakia becomes the separate nations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 
• 1998 The Czech team wins the gold medal in ice hockey at the Winter Olympics.

Following the model of the Soviet Union, Centres for Sports Excellence (strediska vrcholoveho sportu) were established. The state provided financial guarantees for all spheres of sports activities, and athletes were prepared for achieving excellence. This emphasis on excellence bore fruit in the form of a series of international triumphs. For example, between 1945 and 1965 Czechoslovak athletes won eighty-eight titles in the World Championships, forty-four titles in the European Championships, and broke seventy-nine world records; additionally, Czechoslovakia organized thirty world and European meets. The Sokol gatherings, renowned for their mass performances, were replaced by spartakiads, which were intended to propagate the ideology of the current regime. This trend prevailed until 1989 when the Communist regime finally collapsed.

During this period, physical education and sports were regarded as healthy leisure-time activities for citizens, and millions of people were engaged in organized as well as occasional sports and recreational activities, including hiking, cycling, skiing (about 2 million skiers), jogging, volleyball, and football. On the international scene, Czechoslovak athletes continued to triumph in important meets—for example, from 1948 to 1988 they won seventy-six medals in the summer Olympic Games and twenty-one medals in the winter Olympic Games.

The Fourth Stage

The fourth stage, which began after the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989, has seen the gradual decapitation and restructuring of the centrally controlled sports system. Another milestone was the division of Czechoslovakia into two independent states in 1993: the Czech Republic (population 10 million) and Slovakia (population 5 million). Since then, a new way of organizing and managing physical education and sports has evolved and, apart from the central organization (CSTV), new sports associations have been established and many private and group sporting activities have sprung up. On the state level, the sphere of sports is supervised by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Based on the former central organization, CSTV has assumed the form of a sports federation comprising seventy-three sports associations (the total number of registered athletes is about 1.3 million).

Parallel to this impressive growth are various independent sports organizations—for example, Sokol (170,000 members), Orel, the Czech Association of Sports Clubs (275,000 members), and the Czech Association of Sports for All (250,000 members). The Czech Olympic Committee and the Czech Paralympic Committee supervise and coordinate the preparation of athletes for the Olympic Games and together they form an integral part of the international Olympic movement. People have also been encouraged to play sports for pleasure and health. Currently, the estimated number of people who engage in a sport exceeds 2 million, which is about 20 percent of the total Czech population.

The spectrum of sports disciplines in the Czech Republic is very wide, and in many sports Czech athletes have achieved excellent results on the international level.The most popular disciplines are football (a silver medal in the 1962 World Championship, a gold medal in the European Championship in 1976, a bronze medal in the 2004 European Championship, and a gold medal in the 1980 Olympic Games) and ice hockey (multiple World Championship titles and winner of the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano).The popularity of individual sports disciplines such as skiing, tennis, and water slalom depends on their success in important international meets.The number of disciplines in which Czechoslovak and current Czech athletes won gold medals at the Olympic Games illustrates the great variety of sports in this relatively small country: gymnastics, horseback riding, weight lifting, canoeing, athletics, boxing, rowing, cycling, diving, shooting, modern pentathlon, wrestling, tennis, water slalom, football, ice hockey, figure skating, and acrobatic skiing.

The most famous athletes are those who won more than one medal in the Olympic Games—these include Bedrich Supcík and Alois Hudec (gymnastics, two medals), Emil Zatopek (athletics, four medals), Dana Zatopkova (athletics, two medals),Vera Caslavska (gymnastics, seven medals), Jiri Raska (ski jump, two medals), and very recently, Martin Doktor (canoeing, two medals), Stepanka Hilgertova (water slalom, two medals), Jan Zelezny (athletics-javelin, three medals), Robert Sebrle (athletics-decathlon, three medals), and Katerina Neumannova (cross-country skiing, three medals).

In the free Czech Republic of today, sports opportunities for the handicapped are increasing, and the results achieved in the Paralympic Games reflect impressive talent. The international achievements of Czech athletes are also the subject of significant media attention, an important factor in motivating young people to play sports. An interest in sports activities organized on a noncompetitive basis for pleasure and for selfbetterment is also increasing.

Frantisek Vaverka