Kateřina Neumannová
Kateřina Neumannová in 2007
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| Born | 15 February 1973 |
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Medal record
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Kateřina Neumannová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈkatɛr̝ɪna ˈnojmanovaː]) (born 15 February 1973) is a retired Czech cross country skier. She won an Olympic Gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics, in the 30 km freestyle event. She is one of five cross country skiers to ever compete at six Olympics.
She was also the first Czech woman to appear in both a Summer and Winter Olympics, having participated in the mountain biking event at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Neumannová retired after the 2006-07 World Cup season.
She was a flatwater canoeist and downhill skier before moving to cross country skiing at sixteen. Neumannová made her first appearance in the Winter Olympics in 1992 in Albertville. Her goal was only to gain experience. However in all races (both individual and relay) she belonged to the best Czechoslovak athletes. Two years later in Lillehammer she was already among the best. She was 8th in 5 km classical and 6th in combination with 10 km free.
Her training during summer involved riding mountain bike and when the sport become popular she decided to race in it. Thanks to her strong muscles she quickly achieved successes. In 1995, she won a bronze medal at the European Championships, and she also qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Although cross-country skiing remained her main sport and her summer training was usually lighter she took preparations for Atlanta seriously. "This time I left out the pleasant period and started abruptly. Thanks to it I achieved results in athletic tests that I last run in junior categories" she said before Olympics. But her preparations were not in the best conditions. She practised in a cold weather in Šumava while great heat was expected for Atlanta race On 31 July 1996 she became the first Czech female athlete to compete on both Winter and Summer Olympics when starting in the mountain bike race at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, USA. But the race itself was a horror for her. She fell off the bike early in the race. "I overrun about 15 racers but then a terrible crisis came upon me. I did not race anymore, I just wanted to finish," she described the race. She mainly complained about the terrible heat and said it was one of her worst experiences.
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