She made a great comeback and had a fabulous season, at the end of which she enjoyed a bronze medal at the World Championships.
The athlete Emma Zapletalová was crowned the queen of Slovak sports for the year 2025 at a gala evening in the Slovak National Theater Opera House in Bratislava on Monday.
The award for the best team in the traditional Sportsman of the Year poll, organized by the Club of Sports Editors, was won by young handball players, the champions of Europe under the age of 17.
She didn’t give up, she’s accelerating
Zapletalová has an extraordinary story behind her. When she was 21 years old, experts considered her the greatest hope of Slovak athletics with great potential. They predicted her finals at the Olympics in Paris 2024. But injuries slowed her down.
Three years of pain, hardship and difficult returns followed. A series of fatigue fractures kept bringing her down. She admitted that after three o’clock she broke down mentally. However, the difficult period taught her patience.
VIDEO: Emma Zapletalová
She missed the Olympics in Paris. In September 2024, she announced that she was changing her coach. Petr Žňava was replaced by Dutchman Bram Peters, who was recommended to her by Gabriela Gajanová’s Belgian coach Louis Heyer.
In 2025, she started to return to the top of the world. She gradually accelerated and moved the value of the Slovak record for 400 m over obstacles.
In the finals at the WC in Tokyo, she was not among the candidates for a medal, but she surprised. Thanks to her excellent finish, she reached third place and finished in a new Slovak record of exactly 53 seconds.
Young handball players surprised
There were less than two minutes left until the end of the final match at the European Under-17 Handball Championships, but the Slovakian women’s team and their fans could already celebrate.
The team of cadets made the tournament in Montenegro the biggest success of Slovak handball in the era of independence. After a 34:30 victory over Croatia, they won the title and gold medals.
VIDEO: Slovakian handball players up to 17 years old
“I’m proud of the girls. They played great handball with nice combinations, the clutch got going, the pivot took the defense away, it was a joy to watch… And Paľo Streicher, who once coached me as well, showed that he knows how to deal with young people,” commented the handball sensation Mária Ďurišinová, the three-time best handball player in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s and the mainstay of the team that won silver at the WC 1986.
Coach Pavel Streicher’s wards won their participation in the championship in the qualification.
In Montenegro, they lost only one match out of eight: in the round of 16 group with Denmark, when they were already certain to reach the quarter-finals. However, they defeated the same opponent two days later in the quarter-finals, in the semi-finals they dealt with the home team Montenegro and in the finals with Croatia.
Liliana Gogová and Mária Bartková made it to the All Stars tournament. Young Slovak women will present themselves at this year’s under-18 world championships.
The masters from Belgrade are a legend
Emma Zapletalová dominated the Sportsman of the Year 2025 poll with 470 points ahead of footballer Stanislav Lobotko, another footballer Dávid Hancko finished third in the poll.
In the teams, the second basketball players of the club Patrioti Levice were in the bronze position, the football team of Slovakia.
VIDEO: Patriots of the Left
Paralympian of the year was Veronika Vadovičová, archers Dávid and Denis Ivanovci were Paralympic team of the year.
Sports gymnast Lucia Piliarová, winter biathlete Michaela Straková and para-athlete archer Denis Ivan were announced as Talents of the Year 2025.
This year, the Sports Legend award went to the European football champions from 1976. There were 15 Slovaks in the Czechoslovakian team that won the title in Belgrade – Ján Pivarník, Anton Ondruš, Jozef Čapkovič, Koloman Gögh, Karol Dobiaš, Ján Švehlík, Jozef Móder, Marián Masný, Ladislav Jurkemik, Alexander Vencel, Pavol Biroš, Jaroslav Pollák, Dušan Herda, Dušan Galis and Pavol Michalik.
The Štefan Masłonka Award for long-term press services was awarded by KŠR to the representatives of the organizing committee of the International Peace Marathon in Košice.
VIDEO: Paňková and Hagara
