How forbidden love blossomed between Czech, US gold medallists at Melbourne Olympics

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OLGA FIKOTOVA: 1932 - 2024

Olga Fikotova-Connolly, who has died aged 91, was a discus thrower who won Olympic golden for Czechoslovakia successful Melbourne successful 1956 but came into struggle with her country’s Communist apparatchiks.

She was branded a traitor erstwhile she fell successful emotion with an American hammer thrower and forbidden from representing Czechoslovakia. Fikotova-Connolly had to vie successful the adjacent 4 Games for her caller husband’s country, yet carrying the Stars and Stripes into the stadium astatine the 1972 Olympic opening ceremony.

Olympic champions Olga Fikotova and Harold Connolly with their son. The brace met during the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Olga Fikotova was calved successful the metropolis of Most, 50 miles north-west of Prague, connected November 13, 1932, and went connected to survey medicine, intending to spell into orthopaedics. A talented jock from a young age, she represented her state astatine hoops and handball earlier switching to the discus aft winning a metallic medal astatine the 1954 European Women’s Basketball Championship successful Belgrade.

Her expertise successful those 2 sports gave her a grounding of sorts erstwhile she switched. “Both handball, wherever I was a goalie, and hoops itself, are some very, precise movement-oriented sports,” she recalled. “So already, I believe, I had a large woody of neuro-muscular co-ordination and pathways developed.”

Her coach, the venerable Otakar Jandera, told her that each she needed to bash was to cleanable her throwing technique, “and drawback the bushed of it”. “He started disconnected by playing The Blue Danube implicit and implicit again connected the stadium loudspeakers and had maine making turns,” she said.

Gold medal signifier is displayed astatine Melbourne by Czechoslovakia’s Olga Fikotova, victor of the women’s discus lawsuit astatine the 1956 Olympics.

Only 2 years aft taking up the discus, she was astatine the Olympic Games successful Melbourne – and connected the time earlier the commencement of competition, successful the Olympic Village, she bumped into Harold “Hal” Connolly, who was going into the Games having conscionable breached the satellite hammer record. They instantly got connected well, contempt the Soviet bloc diktat forbidding its competitors from fraternising with the Americans.

“We were trying to converse successful my precise fragmented English, and his fragmented German, due to the fact that he’d travelled successful Germany before,” she recalled. “We were benignant of putting unneurotic ideas and views and we were amazingly adjacent together. From that developed, too curiosity and friendship, besides a feeling of love.”

Czechoslovakia’s Olga Fikotova (centre) receiving her Olympic golden medal aft winning the women’s discus propulsion successful Melbourne.

In the discus final, she traded blows with 2 Soviet throwers, Nina Ponomareva – who had go a mentor to her aft the brace had met astatine Olga’s archetypal discus lawsuit – and Irina Beglyakova. The second broke the former’s four-year-old satellite grounds successful the archetypal round, but successful the 5th round, Fikotova threw a sensational 53.69 metres, much than a metre past her rivals’ efforts, to instrumentality golden (Ponomareva was “mad arsenic hell”, said Olga). The pursuing day, Hal won the men’s hammer with an Olympic-record throw.

Their romance flourished, but erstwhile Olga applied for support to wed a foreigner, she recalled, “the assorted representatives were telling maine that I was a traitor and that I was moving astir with an American fascist”.

Her efforts seemed doomed until the long-distance runner Emil Zatopek, a nationalist hero, had a connection with the country’s president Antonin Zapotocky astatine a sports congress. He agreed to conscionable Olga, and she received the licence a fewer days later.

They were joined successful Prague; Olga’s teammates, the joined mates Zatopek and Dana Zatopkova, were their witnesses, and though they were hoping for a quiescent affair, tens of thousands of well-wishers crowded the Old Town Square.

The pursuing time The New York Times wrote: “The H-bomb overhangs america similar a unreality of doom. The subway during unreserved hours is astir intolerable to endure. But Olga and Harold are successful love, and the satellite does not accidental nary to them.”

Olga was besides fixed a licence to determination to the US with Hal – they were truthful broke that helium had to merchantability a hammer to wage for the vessel fare to New York – but contempt her entreaties, the Czech Olympic committee was adamant that she would not beryllium capable to correspond her state if she was not grooming astatine home, spreading the connection that she had refused to bash so. Soon afterwards, she met a radical of Czech athletes successful Rome who turned their backs connected her.

Olga Fikotova kissing her husband, Harold Connolly astatine the Rome Olympic Games successful 1960.

Making a caller location successful the US, she competed arsenic Olga Connolly successful the adjacent 4 Olympics, finishing seventh successful 1960 and sixth successful 1968, arsenic good arsenic winning 5 nationalist titles. She retired successful the precocious 1960s, but returned successful 1972, doubly breaking the US discus grounds astatine the property of 39. Her chap athletes voted her successful arsenic the idiosyncratic to pb the American contingent into the Olympic Stadium astatine the Games successful Munich, contempt authoritative absorption to her outspokenness astir the Vietnam War.

In 1968, she published The Rings of Destiny astir the emotion communicative betwixt her and Hal, but they divorced successful 1975.

In retirement, she became a passionate environmentalist and carnal rights campaigner, portion moving arsenic a fittingness trainer. She was an workout therapist astatine the University of California astatine Irvine until 2017, but refused to discontinue and moved to Las Vegas to enactment astatine a fittingness club.

“For me, competing successful the Olympics was wonderful,” she said successful 2015. “I was highly fortunate to realise that the satellite is truly 1 large household of humans.”

Olga Fikotova and Hal Connolly had 4 children: 1 of their sons became a assemblage decathlon champion and different a Golden Gloves boxer, portion a girl played volleyball for the US.

The Telegraph, London

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