Jiří Raška
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing  Czechoslovakia
|
||
| Men's ski jumping | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
 |
1968 Grenoble | Individual normal hill |
 |
1968 Grenoble | Individual large hill |
| World Championships | ||
|
1970 Vysoké Tatry | Individual large hill |
| Men's ski flying | ||
| World Championships | ||
 |
1972 Planica | Individual |
Jiří Raška (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjɪr̝iː ˈraʃka]; February 4, 1941 – January 20, 2012) was a Czech skier. He is regarded as the most famous Czech ski jumper, Olympic winner of the century.
He was born in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm in 1941. His father died of leukaemia when Jiří Raška was nine years old, leaving his mother to raise four children on her own. His interest in winter sports was not surprising. His cousin and uncle, both active jumpers, took him as their disciple. "We were saying that children in Frenštát are born with skis on their feet," Raška said in the interview for Czech newspaper Lidové noviny. Raška was however also active in other sports, like football, cycling and handball.
As a young jumper he got into coach Zdeněk Remsa's legendary group, the “Remsa Boys”. When military service on Šumava threatened Raška’s budding career, Remsa arranged his entrance into the military sports club Dukla Liberec. In 1964 he travelled to the Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck as a substitute. There he watched Josef Matouš, who led after the first round and had an opportunity to become the second Czech Winter Olympic medalist, but ended up without a medal. Four years later, Raška was in a similar situation.
Thanks to the fourth place in the 1966 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships and a second place in the Four Hills Tournament, he travelled to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble as one of the favourites. Raška himself was hoping to take the fifth place and would not have been disappointed with the tenth place. Czech writer Ota Pavel described his first jump in the normal hill event: "It was a beautiful flight in the infinite silence, that took short human age. Painter and editor Ota Mašek nearly fainted, photographer Jarda Skála stopped photographing. Coach Remsa was washing his face with snow and squeaking Norwegian Wirkola stopped squeaking." Raška jumped 79 metres, which was less than Austrian Baldur Preiml, but thanks to better style he led after the first round. In the second jump he did not fare well, reaching only 72.5 meters, but he went on to victory. Jiří Raška became the first Czech winner in the Winter Olympics. He added the silver medal in the large hill event, beaten only by Vladimir Beloussov of the Soviet Union.
...
Wikipedia