By Tereza Zuntová

If Czechs were asked to name this country's biggest sport successes, they would mention football, ice hockey, field athletics, tennis, skiing and rowing.

But kickboxing? The Czech national kickboxing team, of which I am a member, has for years been bringing top trophies home from world championships. I myself won the title in the women's semi-contact category in Killarney, Ireland, in 2003, and placed second in light-contact in last year's world championships in Larnaca, Cyprus.

I have won 10 national tournaments and five international ones. If that's impressive, consider that my teammates have won world championships four, five and even six times.

But many Czechs still have never heard about our achievements and aren't even clear on the sport. The news media haven't paid much attention, reflecting a common misperception that kickboxing is something from a Hollywood martial-arts movie. This tough sport is actually well-refereed, well-regulated and motivated by a spirit of fair play.

Such misperceptions make it tough to find sponsors to give kickboxing a higher profile.

It started with construction

I was always a bit of a tomboy, joining my father on building jobs at our cottage instead of playing with dolls. Martial arts and sports seemed the next logical step. The worst injury I've suffered in this supposedly bloody sport was an almost broken nose (but not quite). I do have bruises on my body all year round (making it difficult to wear skirts) but bruises disappear eventually.

In five years of kickboxing, I've regularly had to manage five courses at university, 20 hours of teaching English and five to seven training sessions on a weekly basis.

My daily routine — training, study, working at my job, and more training — changed only slightly about six months ago, when I finished my college degree. Now I work full time and train when I can. I have postponed my private life to give myself another season on the international level. Time management is one thing I had to learn.

Sometimes I feel it's all worth it, but sometimes I feel like a complete fool. Winning the World Championship in 2003 was one of the happiest moments of my life; I felt so proud standing on the podium, the Czech flag wrapped around my shoulders, receiving that gold medal. When the Czech national anthem played and the 300 spectators stood up to pay their respect, I just couldn't stop myself crying. It was a moment I wouldn't change for the world.

But that joy lasted only until our arrival back in Prague. We'd brought 11 medals back from that championship, including three gold — but we got only one sentence on one of the three major TV channels and a short paragraph on Teletext, where my name was misspelled.

A few weeks later, a 30-second spot aired about the world "Pooh-stick" world championship for throwing twigs into a stream. Situations like this make me really frustrated.

Psyche out

Training alone is not enough. A good fighter needs to compete with the best fighters around if she is to prepare herself for the world championships. There are high-profile competitions almost every month of the year around Europe that I should take part in, but I cannot afford it.

The more I fight the top opponents, the more I learn how to handle really tough fights. Each and every opponent is different, uses different techniques and has a different style of fighting. It's not only about hard punches and kicks. Believe it or not, a fighter has to think while fighting.

You have to pose as if there were no one better in the world, though you know your opponent is bigger and stronger than you.

It's a game of nerves. Sometimes it's good to be aggressive and make your move fast, other times it's best to wait for your opponent to come forward. Fighting against different fighters helps me to be able to adjust to the different styles quickly.

This, of course, is not just my problem. It's a problem that all my teammates struggle with. The Czech Full-Contact Association can offer only limited government grants that allow a few fighters to travel abroad a couple of times a year.

Backup, please

Athletes like me have to earn most of our travel money ourselves. Finding a sponsor is virtually impossible here unless you play ice hockey or football.

In those sports, athletes find it easy to attract sponsors to support their play for some local club in a small regional league. But in kickboxing it seems that even a world championship is not enough to warrant this kind of support.

As teams like mine demonstrate continued international excellence, I hope companies will consider some of us for the sponsorships we need to compete at the highest level. Working in marketing, I've seen the value of companies seeking to associate their brands with successful athletes.

I want to be one of those athletes.

Advertising campaigns often use slogans combining the strength or power of their product with its beauty or gentleness. Who offers you this combination if not a female fighter? I am sure there would be plenty of opportunities for my male counterparts, too.

There is so much potential in associating the right product with the right person. Am I the only one who can see that? I hope not.

The payoff

I didn't think kickboxing would take up such a big part of my life when I started training. My parents probably hoped it wouldn't. But as I learned more about the sport and met more people involved in kickboxing I've completely fallen for it.

Probably the most important lesson kickboxing has given me is that life is what you make of it.

First, I wanted to be good enough to compete on the national level. Once I won the first Czech national championship I wanted to get nominated for the national team. Once I was nominated I wanted to compete at the World Championship. Never had I imagined I would win it.