Near the first Czech medal in Beijing was a veteran of her discipline, the Czech speed skating legend Martina Sáblíková.
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Right in the first race on the three-kilometer track, the 34-year-old native from Vysočina set a time of 4: 00.34, which was enough for her in fourth place. The Dutch Irene Schouten won gold in the Olympic record 3: 56.93.
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Sáblíková has been on the big world stage for 20 years – since the autumn of 2002. Just to give you an idea, that year the Olympic Games were held in Salt Lake City, where Aleš Valenta, for example, won.
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But in Beijing, it shows that the coming years are no reason for it to end. Speed skating on long distances proves experienced. The German Claudia Pechsteinová, who will be 50 years old in 14 days and is at her eighth Olympic Games, also rode in the race with Sáblíková.
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The pain is temporary, giving it up forever.
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No winter athlete in the history of Czechoslovak and Czech sports has been as successful as Sáblíková. In addition, he will drive his even more popular five-kilometer track in Beijing.
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Martina Sáblíková has six Olympic medals (Kateřina Neumannová also, but less gold) – three gold, two silver and one bronze. In addition, 30 medals from the World Cup – including 19 gold. In addition, she was and is very strong in road cycling, although she failed to nominate for the Summer Olympics just for the famous hair.
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All this was possible thanks to extraordinary circumstances. Unlike the already mentioned speed skating powers, the Czech Republic does not have such conditions. Above all, it still does not have an open or covered speed skating hall or any strong facilities. Martina Sáblíková’s success was born from a small team formed by her coach Petr Novák. At certain times in her career, every step of this miniature was subject to Martina’s success. The coach also devised a special training method – sliding in socks at home in a block of flats on a wooden board that imitates a skating step.
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These were incomparable conditions to those of the Dutch, for example. The journey to medals began on the ponds of the Vysočina region, when coach Novák lured her from basketball to long knives at the age of eleven. In 1998, Novák agreed with several parents to establish his own Skating Club Žďár, which later developed into Novák’s NOVIS Team.
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Her career looks absolutely radiant in the perspective of many medals and titles. But not everything went smoothly. Already at the Olympic premiere in Turin, she narrowly missed out on the top five.
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Then during the career came health problems, especially back pain. She always overcame everything.
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She also did not have the best preparation before Beijing. She even skated her thigh when she fell in training. There were eight stitches and an unpleasant break in training. Fortunately, she soon recovered and was back on the ice after a week. As if to fulfill its motto today and every day: The pain is temporary, giving it up forever.
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