2024-03-20 17:50:37
He was one of the best athletes in Czechoslovakia, he won Olympic gold. But the story of the skipper Václav Kozák had a sad ending. Last week marked twenty years since he died.
Kozák was born on April 14, 1937 in Vrbno nad Lesy in Lounsk. At first he was attracted to cycling, but he failed at rowing while still at the apprenticeship school in Roudnice.
His talent and diligence were soon discovered by the famous Roudnice coach František Vrba, and it was he who put him in a skiff.
In 1957, Kozák became national champion for the first time, and by 1968 he had collected another 14 domestic titles on various ships.
The most famous race was at the Olympic Games in Rome 1960, where he won the gold in the double sculls together with Pavel Schmidt.
Three years later, he became the European skiff champion in Copenhagen. In the same year, he was declared the best sportsman of Czechoslovakia and in 1984 the domestic rower of the century.
After finishing his racing career, he worked as a coach in Prague’s Dukla and in the national team. He was discharged from the army to the reserve in February 1991 in the rank of lieutenant colonel and with the titles of meritorious master of sports and meritorious coach.
But then he lost his family to alcohol, lost a roof over his head and often found refuge in the Salvation Army.
He died on March 15, 2004 in a nursing home in Terezín at the age of 66.