Here’s a brief article on the 1963 Czechoslovak Championships, which Šťastný and Čáslavská won. Čáslavská swept the event titles, as well.
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1963: The Czechoslovak Championships
Author: Gymnastics History
The Czechoslovak men’s team used to be the strongest program in the world. The Czech Sokols won the team titles at the 1907, 1911, 1913, 1922, 1926, 1930, and 1938 World Championships. After World War II, Czechoslovakia’s highest finish at the World Championships was third (1958 and 1962).
So, what happened? Why was their program struggling? In 1963, Stadión ran an article that offered several theories on this topic. The main concern was a lack of depth.
This lack of depth was, in part, due to the amount of dedication that gymnastics takes. “Gymnastics needs all of one’s free time. And so the boys leave and are content to perform some kind of handstand or somersault in the swimming pool.”
Another reason was Czechoslovakia’s mandatory military service, which happened at an age when male gymnasts are just starting to gain the strength required for high-level gymnastics. One unit — Dukla in Prague — was good at developing gymnasts while those who go to other military units do not progress. As a result, many male gymnasts’ development fell by the wayside at the age of 19.
In addition to the question of depth, there was a lack of consistency in the training methodologies throughout the various regions. And generally speaking, there seemed to be misguided routine composition among the top Czechoslovak men.
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1963: Japan vs. Czechoslovakia
In 1963, Japanese gymnasts traveled to Czechoslovakia for a dual meet. Not surprisingly, the Soviets, specifically Yuri Titov, made a trip to Czechoslovakia to film the routines, and the East Germans were there with their notepads.
According to an article in the Czechoslovak sports magazine Stadión, the Japanese men’s artistic gymnasts were breaking new ground on rings and high bar, while the Czechoslovak women’s artistic gymnasts were showing original elements on beam and floor. (Though, the Japanese women’s artistic gymnasts were the queens of turns on beam.)
Here’s a short account of what happened.
Reminder: This was a competition between the top teams in the world. The Czechoslovak men’s team finished third at the 1962 World Championships while the Japanese men finished first. The Czechoslovak women’s team finished second in 1962 while the Japanese women finished third.
When Čáslavská won the vault title at the 1962 World Championships, Vladimír Prorok was her coach. He was the 1955 European Champion on floor exercise, and when he was coaching Čáslavská in the early 1960s, he was a relatively new but highly dedicated coach — one whom “foreign countries look up to with envy and speak of with the utmost respect.”
Note: Prorok also means “prophet” in Czech. Hence the prophecy references throughout this piece.
Luděk Martschini was a coach in the small town of Litvínov, Czechoslovakia. One of his most notable gymnast was Jaroslava Sedláčková, who was part of the 1964 Czechoslovak team that won silver and the 1966 team that won gold. Martschini would go on to be the head coach of the Swiss women’s team during their Olympic debut in 1972.
A 1963 profile of Martschini portrayed him as a man who was devoted to his work (perhaps overly devoted?) and whose anger flared up when a gymnast did not do her homework. The denizens of the town were reluctant to embrace gymnastics, especially leotards, but once his gymnasts started winning, the town embraced gymnastics enthusiastically, and his group of trainees began to grow.
The profile touches upon well-worn topics in gymnastics coverage. For example, can a gymnast have all three — gymnastics training, a good education, and a boyfriend? “School, boyfriend, and sports are an unforgiving triangle. So far, gymnastics wins for everyone, even though school is of course a given.”
At the 1962 World Championships, Přemysl Krbec of Czechoslovakia won the gold medal on vault. This was the last time that a Czechoslovak gymnast was a world champion in men’s artistic gymnastics. Since there hasn’t been much written about Krbec, I translated a profile that was published after the 1962 World Championships in Prague.
Like many gymnasts, gymnastics was not his first love. Even though both his parents were gymnasts, he loved soccer.
Heads-up: Holub, the author of this profile, tended to be a bit fanciful in his profiles of gymnasts.
In 1962, Prague hosted the World Championships, and, all in all, it was a successful competition for Czechoslovak gymnasts. On the women’s side, the team finished second, and Čáslavská defeated all the Soviet gymnasts except for Latynina in the all-around. She also was the gold medalist on vault and the bronze medalist on floor, while Bosáková was the gold medalist on beam and the silver medalist on bars. On the men’s side, the team took home bronze, and Krbec won gold on vault.
Here’s what the Czechoslovak weekly sports newspaper Stadión reported. As we’ll see, there were 10s being thrown out by individual judges. (No gymnast received enough 10s to receive a final score of 10.) At the same time, the newspaper noted that there were some “thoughtful mistakes” by the judges, but it did not dive into what those mistakes were.
Even if you don’t read the text below, enjoy the photos. Stadión was a highly visual periodical.
In 1962, Věra Čáslavská won her first all-around title at the Czechoslovak Championships, and heading into the World Championships in Prague, the expectations were high for the star of Czechoslovak gymnastics. The Czech-language sports newspaper Stadión printed an article on Čáslavská, which is part profile, part Shakespearean play, and part fairytale.
Note: A fairytale seems bizarre, but pohádky (fairytales) are a vibrant genre in Czech culture. Čáslavská even wrote one about gymnastics in her autobiography, which you can find translated here.
My Thought Bubble: That said, the combination of fairytale and Shakespearean characters is a bit bizarre, but the profile gives us an idea of how Czechoslovak journalists wrote about athletes at the time.
Shortly after the tri-meet between Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and the Soviet Union, those countries faced each other once again in Tbilisi. Added to the mix were other socialist and communist countries, including Hungary, China, Poland, and Romania.
With Latynina absent, Čáslavská once again won the all-around title, proving that she would be a force to be reckoned with at the 1962 World Championships in Prague.
Below, you can find Sovetsky Sport’s coverage of the competition.
No surprise: The Soviet men’s team defeated the Czechoslovak and East German teams, and Yuri Titov, the 1959 European All-Around Champion, won the all-around title
The surprise: Months before the Prague World Championships, the Czech and East German women defeated the Soviet team, and Čáslavská won the all-around.
Granted, the top Soviet gymnast, Larisa Latynina, was not present. However, Čáslavská’s victory over Astakhova was a harbinger of good things to come. After finishing behind Astakhova at the 1960 Olympics (eighth compared to third) and the 1961 European Championships (tied for third compared to second), Čáslavská finally beat Astakhova during this tri-meet. Then, at the 1962 World Championships, Čáslavská finished second, defeating all the Soviet gymnasts except for Latynina.
Here’s more about the tri-meet, as well as short interviews with several of the Soviet gymnasts. An interesting question came up: Would it be correct to give the judges the optional routines written out before the competition? Not surprisingly, all the athletes said no.