Czech figure skating

The history of Czech figure skating is rich in achievements. The oldest ones date back to the period before the Second World War, thanks to the sports couple Eliška and Oskar Hoppe, who took third place at the World Championships in Vienna in 1927.

In the second half of the last century, Czech figure skating became one of the biggest figure skating powers.

In 1949 and 1950, Ája Vrzáňová became world champion, one of the most outstanding women in Czech and world figure skating. Among the men, Karol Divín, European champion in 1958 and 1959, who won silver at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley in 1960 and finished second at the World Championships in Prague two years later, shined.

In sports pairs, the couple Věra Suchánková – Zdeněk Doležal achieved great success, European champions in 1957 and 1958 and silver medalists from the world championship in Bratislava in 1958. Siblings Eva and Pavel Roman made an unforgettable mark in history in the dance couple category. They became four-time European champions and three-time world champions between 1962 and 1965.

Hana Mašková became the European champion in 1968, who also won a bronze medal at the Olympics of the same year in Grenoble.

The most successful figure skater of the former Czechoslovakia was Slovak Ondrej Nepela, five-time European champion, three-time world champion (1969 – 1973) and Olympic champion from Sapporo in 1972. Nepela’s success was followed by his compatriot Jozef Sabovčík, who became European champion three times in 1985 – 1987.

In sports pairs, the duo Radka Kovaříková – René Novotný, world champions from Birmingham 1995, caught the eye.

Petr Barna, among others, the European champion from Lausanne in 1992 added more successes to the Czech colors. Tomáš Verner also stood on the highest European step, bringing gold from Zagreb 2008.

Ostrava is successful organizationally, and among competitors

Ostrava is not only known for hosting many figure skating events, Ostrava’s figure skaters are also very successful: in the past, the Šrámek siblings in sports pairs, Stanislav Drastich and Jan Barták in dance pairs, and the most famous René Novotný have reached top events from the Ostrava incubator world champion in sports pairs.

In the recent past, a number of other pupils achieved the titles of champions of the Czech Republic and secured participation in the ISU Junior World Championship, the ISU European Championship and the World Championship.

The names Lukáš Rakowski, Eva Chudá, Nella Simaová, Alexandra Herbríková-Lukáš Ovčáček (later Alexandra Herbríková-Rudy Halmaert), Petr Coufal are well known not only to the Ostrava public.

OVERVIEW OF CZECH AND CZECH REPUBLIC. MEDALS AT THE OH, WC AND ME IN FIGURE SKATING