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LONDON – At the Summer Olympic Games in London in 1948, the former Czechoslovakia won a total of 11 medals, six of which were gold, and placed eighth in the nation ranking.
One of the gold metals was won on August 14, 1948 by a team of sports gymnasts. However, their triumph had a bitter aftertaste, because one of the members of their team died the night after the end of the Olympic competition – twenty-two-year-old Eliška Misáková, in whom doctors discovered polio after arriving in Britain. During the ceremonial announcement of the winners, the Czechoslovak flag was bordered with a black ribbon, Misáková was the only athlete in the history of the Olympic Games to receive an honorary gold medal in memoriam.
The Czechoslovak national team consisting of Zdenka Honsová, Marie Kovářová, Miloslava Misáková, Milena Müllerová, Věra Růžičková, Bozena Srncová, Olga Šilhánová and Zdena Vermiřovská was made up of Sokol members. “At first there were 126 of us, during that time we completed many training sessions and races,” later described the then two-year search for the best female racers, led by Marie Provazníková, head of Sokol.
But sports fighters did not enjoy the fame too much. Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia, who saw the Sokol movement as hostile to them and soon banned it. Most of the girls then devoted themselves to family or civilian professions, some later worked as gymnastics coaches.
Author: © List Source: CTK
2023-08-14 08:01:21
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