Milena Rezková

Milena Rezková (actually Miloslava Rezková, at times Hübnerová; * July 22, 1950 in Prague ; † October 19, 2014 ) was a Czech high jumper who became an Olympic champion for Czechoslovakia in 1968 .

At 1.69 m, she was unusually short for a high jumper. She only grew 5 centimeters after she was 20 years old. In addition to her size, she was handicapped by recurring hip problems and her nearsightedness (3 diopters ). Since she took off her glasses before each jump, she could only see the bar blurred. She started for the Red Star Prague association.

Life

Together with her sister she grew up in Holešovice , where she attended the Masaryk School. The sporty girl danced ballet and did rhythmic gymnastics . She came into athletics by chance when she stood in for a sick classmate in a high jump competition and immediately won. As a 13-year-old she had a best performance of 1.33 m.

She came into the public spotlight in 1968 when she surprisingly won the national championship in Jablonec nad Nisou . At the beginning of the year, her personal best was 1.66 m. In the indoor season she was able to increase to 1.70 m. Now there was a performance explosion in Jablonec to 1.82 m. She followed the advice of her trainer Rudolf Hübner not to let anything disturb her in a peculiar way: At the Olympic Games in Mexico City , she passed the time between the jumps by reading Jerome K. Jerome's cheerful book Three Man in a boat , at which she laughed heartily at times.

After her two gold medals at the 1968 Olympic Games and the European Athletics Championships in Athens in 1969 , she was unable to win any more medals. Her victory in Athens two years later at the European Championships in Helsinki only reached fifth place, at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich she came in 15th with 1.82 m, and at the 1974 European Championships in Rome she was 1.86 m fifth.

She was national champion four times (1968, 1969, 1972 and 1974). In 1969 she was named Czechoslovak Sportswoman of the Year. Her last competition was in Tallinn in 1977 .

Her marriage to Rudolf Hübner, which she entered into in 1970, failed. The single mother of Linda (* 1975) and Jiří (* 1982) was employed by Roter Stern Prague as a youth trainer. With the exception of her years as a top athlete, Miloslava Rezková described her life as "very everyday". She died on October 19, 2014 at the age of 64 from complications from cancer.

International placements

• Olympic games

  1968 in Mexico City : Gold with 1.82 m ahead of Russian Antonina Okorokowa and Ukrainian Walentyna Kosyr with 1.80 m each

  1972 in Munich : 15th place

• European championships

  1969 Athens : Gold with 1.83 m ahead of Antonina Lasarewa (-Okorokowa) and her compatriot Maria Mrachnová (the first four jumped 1.83 m.)

  1971 in Helsinki : fifth with 1.83 m (victory height of the Austrian Ilona Gusenbauer : 1.87 m)

  1973 Rotterdam (Halle): Sixth

  1974 in Rome : Fifth with 1.86 m (victory height of Rosemarie Witschas (GDR): 1.95 m)

  1975 Katowice (Halle): eleventh

Web links

• Athlete portrait on the website of the Czech Athletics Federation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ gbrathletics: Czechoslovakian Championships
2. ↑ Czech high jump Olympic champion Rezkova has died
3. ↑ Miloslava Rezkova, Gold Medal Olympic High Jumper, Dies at 64. Obituary in The New York Times, October 20, 2014 (Czech, accessed October 21, 2014).