Olympian Pavlásek has died. The medal escaped him in Munich, he watched the terrorists closely

Once he started with athletics, at eighteen he switched to weightlifting after injuries and problems with special training. He achieved his best results in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the first in Czechoslovakia to lift 200 kilograms in the shot put, 500 kg in the triple wrestle and 400 kg in the double wrestle.

He had not yet seen the games in Mexico in 1968, but four years later in Munich he could have attacked for a medal in the heaviest category, but finished sixth.

He experienced the drama outside the weightlifting hall, in the Olympic village, where a terrorist attack took place in which Palestinian radicals killed several members of the Israeli expedition.

Pavlásek had cocooned attackers literally in front of his eyes. “We were looking at the terrorists, they were walking on that pavement, they had stockings on their heads,” the website ceskobudeowicky.denik.cz quoted from Pavlásk’s memories.

He repeatedly collected domestic titles and records. Under the podium, often unluckily, but he ended up at other top events – WC and ME. In Montreal 1976, he ended his Olympic performance with a disqualification. He soon ended his career, working as an official. He also worked at the municipal office in his native Týn nad Vltavou, where he also spent his retirement years.