He was the first Czech to win the medal at the Olympics. At the same time, the first athlete from the heart of Europe, which in any athletic discipline made a world record. The legendary František Janda-Suk, whose death has been 70 years since his death, helped.
A native of Postřižín near Prague he has been practicing since his youth in Sokol and soon began to focus on athletic disciplines, especially castor.
When he went to Paris in 1900 as a 22 -year -old for the second modern Olympic Games, he was already held by a European record, but he had no personal coach or a proper training background.
Yet he won a 35.14 meter of silver medal in the disc.
It was the first ever Olympic valuable metal for athletes representing the Czech land.
A few days later, the third place was won by tennis player Hedwig Rosenbaum.
The first Czech athlete won the most valuable medal in 1924 in Paris, where Bedřich Šupčík dominated the climb on the rope.
The sports world was attracted by Janda-Suk in his time by technology. While the athletes then threw from the place, he – inspired by the studio of the statue of Myrón’s Diskobol, the famous ancient act – began to use the rotation around his own axis during the throw.
This method brought longer throws and gradually became the basis of a modern disc with a disc.
In addition to the Olympic medal, the Czech athlete itself also brought an enrollment in the unofficial world tables.
In 1900, he became the first Czech world record holder in any athletic discipline.
After the top sports career he worked as a coach and organizer of sports competitions. He remained an active member of Sokol and advocated the development of physical education in Czechoslovakia.
He devoted himself to training young athletes and cooperated on organizing athletic events.
He died on June 23, 1955 at the age of 77.
