Otto Jelinek

Otto Jelinek
nation	Canada
birthday	May 20, 1940
place of birth	Prague
Career
discipline	Pair skating
Partner	Maria Jelinek
society	Oakville Skating Club
status	resigned
Medal table
World Cup medals 1 × 1 × 2 ×
World figure skating championships bronze Colorado Springs 1957 Couples bronze Paris 1958 Couples silver Vancouver 1960 Couples gold Prague 1962 Couples

Otto John Jelinek ( Czech Otto Jelínek ; born May 20, 1940 in Prague ) is a former Canadian figure skater who started in pair skating and a former Canadian and current Czech politician .

Life

Jelinek's family fled with him and his sister Maria from Czechoslovakia to Switzerland and later to Oakville , Canada in 1948 during the beginning of the Cold War .

Otto and his sister Maria Jelinek had been Canadian runners-up in pair skating behind Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul four times since 1956 , before they finally became Canadian champions after their resignation in 1961 and 1962. When they made their world championship debut in 1957 in Colorado Springs , they won the bronze medal, which they defended in Paris the following year . In 1959 they missed another medal with fourth place just behind the Americans Nancy and Ronald Ludington . At their only Olympic Games in 1960 in Squaw Valley , like at the World Cup last year, they finished fourth, but this time even closer to the Ludingtons. In 1960 in Vancouver the Jelineks were runner-up behind their compatriots Wagner and Paul, whose victories they had already placed on the podium in 1957 and 1958. Otto and Maria Jelinek achieved fame when they flew to their homeland in Prague for the 1962 World Cup and won the gold medal in pair skating there, despite having been warned not to return to Czechoslovakia. You were the first to do multi-turn lifts.

After the end of their amateur career, the Jelineks switched to the professionals in 1962 and appeared in the ice revue The Ice Capades until 1969 . After that, both of them quit professional ice skating.

In 1965 Jelinek began studying at the Swiss Alpine Business College in Davos .

After a time in this business Otto Jelinek went into politics and in 1972 was elected as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party in the Canadian lower house for High-Park Humber Valley (Toronto). In 1974 he was re-elected; In 1979 he moved to the Halton constituency and was elected to the House of Commons from there.

When the Conservatives formed government in 1984, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Jelinek as Minister of State for Fitness and Amateur Sport , and Minister in charge of Multiculturalism. In 1988 he was appointed Minister of Supply and Services and later Minister of Finance. Jelinek left politics after Mulroney left and did not stand for election in 1993. Politically, he was more of a "right-wing conservative " and a staunch anti-communist .

In 1994 he moved back to the Czech Republic and became chairman of the board of Deloitte & Touche Central Europe as well as chairman and managing partner of the company for the Czech Republic. Since 2006 he has been the coordinator of foreign activities of the Czech Republic.

Results

Pair skating

(with Maria Jelinek )

Competition / year	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962
winter Olympics					4th
World championships		3.	3.	4th	2.		1.
Canadian Championships	2.	2.	2.		2.	1.	1.

Web links

• Otto Jelinek in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Otto Jelinek - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)
• New coordinator for the Czech Republic's activities abroad