Czech Republic at the Paralympics
| Czech Republic at the Paralympics | |||||||||
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| IPC code | CZE | ||||||||
| NPC | Czech Paralympic Committee | ||||||||
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Czechoslovakia (1972–1992) | |||||||||
The Czech Paralympic team refers to athletes and their support teams, who represent or represented the Czech Republic at the Paralympic Games. It also includes a team of many people who have to coordinate security, and work on the preparation and realization of all Czech Paralympic activities.
The Czech Paralympic committee (CPC) is the body whose main function is to develop ideas of Paralympism in the Czech Republic and is responsible for preparing and supplying stately representation for the Czech Republic at the Summer or Winter Paralympic Games.
The mascot for the Czech Paralympic team is a bird named "Emil".
Winter Paralympic Games Turin 2006
The last Paralympic Games were situated in Turin in 2006. The Czech Republic was represented by five athletes at these games. They were:
- Stanislav Loska - amputation of upper limb
- Michal Nevrkla - above-knee amputation
- Jan Dostál - above-knee amputation
- Radim Kozlovský - paraplegic
- Anna Kulíšková - vision-impaired
At the opening ceremonies of these Paralympic Games, the flag-bearer for the Czech Republic was Anna Kulíšková.
Alpine Skiing
All five athletes representing the Czech republic participated in the Alpine skiing event. The first competition for members of the team was downhill skiing at the Borgata ski slope, one of the most dreaded, and the results were disappointing. Anna Kulíšková did not finish her runs in the competition. She lost her footing and ended up in the safety net. Her team mate Michal Nevrkla lost control at the same place in the course, but he regained his footing, finishing the competition in 39th place. In the same competition, Jan Dostál finished in 37th place. Stanislav Loska and Radim Kozlovský did not take part in this competition.
Super G
Two days later was the super G competition. In this event Anna Kulíšková won the silver medal; her first medal in her 4-year-long competitive career. Sabine Gasteiger from Austria took home the gold medal. Radim Kozlovský also entered the super G events, finishing in 26th place.
Slalom
In the giant slalom, the Czech men were not as successful as Anna Kulíšková. Stanislav Loska started very well in first round, and from 11th place, he was shooting for a place in top ten. Taking big risks in the second round, he ended up in a collision, and he finished in 16th place. Michal Nevrkla and Jan Dostál also participated in this competition, finishing in 33rd and 36th place, respectively.
The next day was the giant slalom event with Anna Kulíšková. She wanted to repeat her silver medal success from the super G event. She was too slow and cautious in the first round and ending up finishing just short of medal standing in 4th place.
Thirteenth place in the giant slalom was a big individual success for Radim Kozlovský.
The last event for the Czech team in Turin was the special slalom. The Czech men were not very successful, and failed to place anywhere in the top ten. Jan Dostál took 30th place, Michal Nevrkla 26th place, with the best ranking being Stanislav Loska at 18th place. Stanislav Loska took the bronze medal in the slalom in Lillehammer in 1994. But now that all men with some type of amputation compete together in one category, the competitive field has grown larger.
The most successful Czech Paralympic skier is Kateřina Teplá. She did not get her start in Turin. Kateřina is vision-impaired and belongs to category B3, because she is "only" shortsighted. Today, she is the best Czech skier with 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal from Nagano 1998 and 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal from Salt Lake City. In 2002, she was named The Best Czech Paralympic Athlete.
| 1976 | 3 medals (3-0-0) | 7. place |
| 1980 | 1 medal (0-1-0) | 10. place |
| 1984 | without medal | ... |
| 1988 | without medal | ... |
| 1992 | 6 medals (0-4-2) | 14. place |
| 1994 | 1 medal (0-0-1) | 22. place |
| 1998 | 7 medals (3-3-1) | 13. place |
| 2002 | 5 medals (2-1-2) | 14. place |
Summer Paralympic Games Athens 2004
The XIIth Summer Paralympic Games were situated in Athens. In total, 65 athletes represented the Czech republic. Among them was the flag bearer of the Czech team Roman Musil - the most successful Czech Paralympian at the Sydney games.
Cycling
Cyclist Jiří Bouška was the first to garner a medal for the Czech team. He took the bronze medal in the 1 km race. Jiří made a new world record for division 4, but after conversion of coefficients placed third in the race overall. The British competitor Darren Kenny from division 3 took home the gold medal. Jiří Bouška also took the bronze medal in the 3 km pursuit event, with teammate Luboš Jirka coming in just behind him in fourth place.
Cyclist Jiří Ježek won the silver medal in another pursuit event. He had taken the gold medal in Sydney. Jiří has a below-knee amputation. In the finals in category LC2, he could not beat Robert Alcaide from Spain. Jiří also competed in the combination event, and won the gold medal there.
Historically, the first gold medal in timed competition went to Czech republic handy-cyclist, Marcel Pipek. He expressed that he had trained very hard to prepare for the race with his friend in Jeseníky.
Swimming
Czech swimmers had a successful showing at the games as well. Swimmer Martin Kovář won the 100 meter free style competition, taking home the gold medal and setting a new world record. He bested his previous world record that had held for 3 months old, by over 2 seconds. He has now confirmed his absolute sovereignty in the S3 category. Martin also took home the gold in the 200 meter free style event, again setting a world record, despite having to swim the competition from the awkward lane 8.
In category S1, Jiří Kadeřávek won the bronze medal in the 100 meter crawl. He also participated in the rugby union event at the games.
Less than six months after giving birth, 'Běla Hlaváčková returned to compete in the swimming events and won a gold medal for the 50 meter backstroke Her biggest competitor, Beatrice Hess from France, finished just after her. `Kateřina Lišková also participated in this event, placing fourth.
Swimmer Kateřina Coufalová won the next gold medal for the Czech team in the 100 meter breaststroke competition in category SB9. This category is for competitors with an amputated arm. After her triumph in Atlanta, this marked the second gold medal in her career.
Athletics
The next event in Athens was athletics. Czech discus-thrower Veronika Foltová took the gold, setting a new Paralympic record at 23.47 meters. Martina Kniezková also won a gold medal in the discus-throw, setting a new world record in category F51, repeating her triumph at Sydney.
Czech discus-thrower František Pürgl initially took fourth place, before being granted the bronze medal after the handicap of the winner Mochtar from Iran was reconsidered and he was moved into other category. František Pürgl was very happy to bring home this media and Athens was his last Paralympic Games.