Hockey triumph, Olympic success mark year

2010: A YEAR IN REVIEW

Czech athletes celebrated some long-awaited triumphs at the Olympics and the World Championships this year, with 1.71-meter tall speed skater Martina Sáblíková towering over them all.

Sáblíková became the most successful Czech athlete in the history of Winter Olympics after winning two gold medals and one bronze at the Vancouver Games in February. So it came as no surprise that she was named the country's Athlete of the Year Dec. 22.

Sáblíková was the first Czech Olympian in 14 years to win two gold medals at a single Olympic Games. (Canoeist Martin Doktor won two gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games.) And with a total of three medals under her belt from one Olympics, Sáblíková accomplished something no Czech has in 42 years. (In 1968, gymnast Věra Čáslavská won six medals, including four gold and two silver, in Mexico City.)

Sáblíková's triumph in Vancouver had been anticipated, however. En route to turning Sáblíková into an Olympic star, her coach, Petr Novák, ordered special pre-Olympic injury prevention measures including forbidding Sáblíková from playing soccer and skiing. In addition, he tried to prevent her from driving, and to ensure that no one put the skater in a bad mood, Novák advised her not to peruse reader comments to online news articles before the Olympics.

"They are often vulgar and aggressive," Novák said.

Hockey highs and lows

The relative success of any Winter Olympics is usually perceived through results of the national hockey team. The Czech team clearly failed in Vancouver, but the Games were the most successful Winter Olympics in Czech sports history. Czech athletes took home two gold medals (Sáblíková) and four bronze medals (Sáblíková, downhill skier Šárka Záhrobská, cross-country skier Lukáš Bauer and the men's cross-country relay team). Never before had the Czech team won more medals at a single Winter Games, and never before had a single Czech athlete won multiple gold medals at the same Winter Olympics.

And later, the national hockey team made up for their Olympics failure. With the NHL players in the lineup, the Czechs lost to Finland in the quarterfinals of the Vancouver Games and failed to qualify for the medal round. Without NHL players, the Czech team stunned favored opponents at the World Championship in Germany in May, and the team was crowned World Champions after beating Russia in the final game.

"We proved that nothing is impossible," said forward Jaromír Jágr moments after the underdog Czech squad beat the star-studded Russians led by forwards Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Malkin.

For much of the tournament, the Czech team struggled and faced a real danger of failing to qualify for the playoff round for the first time ever. Jágr, however, led the team to an amazing recovery, and later in the year, the hockey hero received a state award given annually by the country's president on Independence Day, Oct. 28. This year, Jágr was the only athlete in the 22-member group of recipients selected by President Václav Klaus. Other recipients included war veterans, scientists and artists.

Stunned at Wimbledon

Tennis player Tomáš Berdych ended a long drought when he became only the third Czech to advance to the final of the world's most prestigious tennis tournament, Wimbledon. Berdych was the first from the country to reach the Wimbledon final since Ivan Lendl in 1987, but lost out to world No. 1 player Rafael Nadal 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.

In his run to the finals, Berdych took out six-time champion Roger Federer of Switzerland. Although he failed to win a single tournament this year, Berdych celebrated two other successes. In June, he advanced to the semifinals of the French Open, and in December, he qualified for the prestigious Masters Championships in London, which is reserved for the world's top eight players.

Boats and bikes

In another remarkable individual effort, rower Ondřej Synek won the first ever gold medal for the Czech Republic in the event at November's World Championship in New Zealand. Synek beat the reigning world and Olympic champions in winning the single sculls. Also in November, motorcyclist Karel Abraham won the last race of this year's World Championship series in Moto 2 category in Valencia. Abraham became the third Czech biker in history to win a World Championship race.

Success on home soil

The national women's basketball team fully capitalized on the home-field advantage at the World Championship in late September and early October. For the third time in history, the squad challenged for the title of the world champion. While a powerful U.S. team eventually smashed Czech hopes 89-69 in the finals, the most celebrated win of the tournament came in the quarterfinals, in which the Czechs upset traditional powerhouse Australia, 79-68. The win against the defending World Champions came as a bolt from the blue and even brought President Václav Klaus to tears in the stands of the Karlovy Vary arena.

Cyclist Zdeněk Štybar also triumphed in the World Championship in cyclocross. In late January, Štybar won the race in Tábor, becoming the first Czech in 19 years to celebrate a cyclocross victory.

František Bouc can be reached at
fbouc@praguepost.com