Sovetsky Sport. April 7, 1990. The fate of this pretty woman, Vera Caslavska, is truly extraordinary. Perhaps someone who had met her before on the gymnastics platform will catch familiar features in her face by looking at the photograph we are publishing.
"Divine Vera," as the world newspapers wrote about this outstanding athlete, was truly a magnificent gymnast. Vera was born in May 1942, at a time when war was raging in Europe. Twenty-two years later, she won the all-around Olympic title for the first time. She repeated this success at the next Olympics. In addition, her collection includes eleven Olympic medals, seven of which are gold. She won the world championship title in 1966, and was European champion in 1965 and 1967. In total - 35 medals (including 22 gold). As she herself admits, her main rival all those years was our Larisa Latynina.
Vera belonged to the pioneers of women's gymnastics in the literal sense of the word which, alas, has disappeared into history. Then it was the turn of the little girls' gymnastics.
The road to her medals was paved through work and talent. And therefore, on the platform, Vera truly shone, striking with her inspiration, artistry, and risk...
During the competition in Mexico City, Vera's wedding was celebrated in the Olympic Village with Josef Odlozil, the silver medalist of the Tokyo Olympics in the 1500 meters. The newlyweds went on honeymoon to Capri, and it seemed that the future would be easy and cloudless...
Everything turned out differently. From the glory of the nation, she turned into a person inconvenient for the authorities. And she remained so for twenty years, until the time came for the 'velvet revolution.' How did Vera Caslavska live these years, and what is her fate like now?
For half an hour now, I have been watching you scurrying back and forth along the corridors and offices. You seem to be enjoying it a lot!
It's not what you think. There are things that I have to pay more attention to than I should, but that's also work. Let's move to another room. I don't like these chairs which, in my opinion, can seat three people. In addition, it seems to me that they are equipped with all kinds of equipment for eavesdropping and spying. President Havel intends to replace all this furniture with normal ones soon.
(Two men, looking about forty years old and tired, wearing worn sweaters and sneakers, came up to us. An unusual look in these solemn walls.) "I present to you Jiri and Sasha, two other advisers to the President. A journalist and a screenwriter. Sasha was still a serving a prison sentence on November 27, and today is a press attache" (she bursts into laughter).
We enter a new room, as large as a tennis court.
I would still like to ask you: what are you doing here?
You see, I work as an advisor to Vacek...he's the President of the Republic.
Maybe we can start by talking about the November revolution? Where were you?
I have a small house in the north of Moravia. I was resting there with my children: Martin (he's 14 years old) and Radka (she's 21). Radka didn't go to class because the students went on strike. We returned to Prague. The next day the children were outside all the time. In the evening the demonstration was shown on television. I recognized Martin from one of the TV shots. "Something is brewing," I thought. And then the first lines of my declaration began to appear in my mind...
Which says...
That our children helped us to raise our heads and that we now have to help them. That we, the older generation, have lived for too long in an atmosphere of fear and that the Revolution is already on the threshold... I went to the office of the "Svobodne Slovo" newspaper. There I met Havel. I read my text to him, noting in passing that it was surprisingly too lengthy. "If every word in this manifesto is important to you, it cannot be too long," Havel said in response. From that moment on, I understood what democracy is: here is a text that no one corrects or shortens. I read my declaration from the balcony. I said that we were embarking on a marathon race that had just begun, that victory would not be easy or simple.
Have you known Havel for a long time?
I first saw him in 1986, in a small student theater.
Is it true that after his election as President, he offered you a number of very important positions?
Yes. Minister of Sports, Ambassador to Japan, candidate for mayor of Prague. I refused all offers. Become Minister of Sports? I thought for a long time. But, in my opinion, this post is for experienced politicians, managers, and certainly not for women. Besides, elite sport, with its money and doping problems, is not my business.
And Japan?
I have remained incredibly popular there since my Olympic victory in 1964. The President believed that this would be beneficial in establishing economic contacts when signing a contract. But to be so far from home now... There is so much to do here, and the main thing is victory in the general elections in June. I decided to remain as an advisor. This is my business.
What does your revolution give to sports?
First of all, renewal - of people, of systems. Everything needs to be redone, everything needs to be reconstructed. Of course, this will take some time, and we may stop somewhere, but the accumulated problems must be solved. And let the athletes move sport forward. Nobody else.
Do you have to deal with sports issues as an advisor to the President?
We are left with such a legacy that, first of all, it is necessary to solve the problems of industry, economics, education, medicine, and international relations. Then comes sports. I'm not saying that we will remember it last. No, but not now - later.
Do you still love sports?
It will be with me all my life. I still train young people. And this is my main profession, since the post of advisor is unpaid. I coach three times a week and hold onto my place, remembering how difficult it was to get it.
What do you mean by that?
It's a long and old story. Upon returning from the 1968 Mexico Olympics I, along with a group of people, signed the so-called 'Two-Thousand-Word Manifesto,' which condemned the entry of troops in to Prague in August 1968. That's where it all started. My husband was dismissed from the army, I was denied any work. But the hardest part was something else - the constant pressure to withdraw my signature. Some did it. I was offered million-dollar contracts in Japan and America. But I never backed down and did what I believed in. The most difficult time came later, in the 1970s. Friends, seeing me on the street, crossed to the other side so as not meet me on the sidewalk. They were afraid for themselves.
Have you ever thought about leaving Czechoslovakia?
I won't leave it. This is my homeland, where my parents and children live, where I myself was born.
Weren't you afraid of breaking?
Many times. One day, and I will always remember this, on January 7, 1971, I was invited to go to my home club - Ruda Gvezda (Straznice). I went with my heart beating with excitement, believing that they would finally give me a job. I entered the office and said: "Hello" ... nobody replied. No one even asked me to sit down. And the president of the club announced the agenda of the prepared meeting: the expulsion of Vera Caslavska - 27 votes in favor, no votes against. I was speechless. A few days later I was expelled from the gymnastics federation.
Did the pressure continue?
It continued. But I stood my ground, refusing to sign. One evening I noticed a Tatra that pulled up near my house. Security officers drove those cars. Two men knocked on the door, demanding that I get dressed. I woke up my kids and took them with me. I was brought to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Long, very long corridors... And suddenly I felt like a prisoner. And I cried. There was a small orange scarf around Radka's neck, and I used the tip of it to wipe away my tears, trying to calm down... Once again, for the umpteenth time, I told the functionaries that I would not change my mind.
And when did it all end?
I wrote to Gustav Husak, the future president of the republic, who was then the General Secretary of the Party. He met with me. He's a very intelligent person. He explained to me that he had to do a lot of things that weren't popular. But that's his responsibility... Then he asked me what I was doing. I answered: nothing. I said everything that I thought... Until 1975, nothing changed. Every January I met with Antonin Zitl, the Chairman of the Czechoslovak Union of Physical Culture. All these years he told me: you stil have to wait. In 1975, I put on a very revealing shirt under my coat and went to see him. He asked me: what kind of look is that? I replied: it's my work look, my work clothes. And I added: give me a job, otherwise I'll call all the foreign journalists all over the world. That's how I became a coach at Sparta. See, what a long story it is.
Then there was a trip to Mexico?
In 1979, Mexican President Portillo asked me to lead the country's gymnastics team. The communist party leadership agreed: I was less dangerous in Mexico City than in Prague. I returned two years later, having lost my sister, then my father, and soon my mother.
The Japanese adore you, and the Mexicans cannot forget you. This is what Olympic medals mean!
You're right. It's no coincidence that in 1983 IOC President Samaranch came to us and said that I was an example not only in Czechoslovakia but throughout the whole world. This was very important to me. And in Moscow, Izvestiya and Komsomolskaya Pravda published an interview with me. So little by little my name began to return to the newspaper pages. I came out of the shadows.
Are your Olympic medals intact?
Yes. They are under the bed in a chest that kind of reminds me of the days when people lent money.
We haven't talked about modern gymnastics.
Since the age limit in gymnastics was lowered, all femininity has left it. Women are represented on the platform by children, creatures too young to express the full range of deep aesthetic feelings. To do this you need to be a woman. You need to know love and suffering. Technology and risk have replaced art.
I feel like it's time for us to part ways. They are waiting for you, and there are a lot of papers in your hands.
Judge for yourself. I have to rush to a meeting of the committee to fight AIDS, to deal with the Dalai Lama's visit to us, to which China objects. (She flips through the papers.) Then there's this story of a woman from Bohemia on a hunger strike, protesting the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel. I will call her.
Excellent. But in parting, explain why you cancelled your traditional Spartakiad, this grand celebration of youth, at the Strahov Stadium?
In my opinion, this is an outdated event for which young people have lost their taste. Let them suggest new holidays themselves. Our youth understand some things better than we do.