Vera Čáslavská
XIX Olimpiade

How long can a season last? It depends, on the spatial and temporal coordinates.

For instance, in 1968 in Prague, spring lasted for over seven months.

So much so that this exceptional phenomenon was attested in a manifesto, the one of two thousand words, which closed as follows: «This spring we were once again given a great opportunity, as had already happened at the end of the war. We once again have the opportunity to take charge of our common cause, provisionally defined as socialism, and to give it a face more appropriate to our reputation, once good, and the decent opinion of ourselves that we used to have».

Seventy signatures followed, those of intellectuals, filmmakers, actors, athletes.

Among these, the signature of Vera Čáslavská.

In that spring of 1968, Vera was 26 years old, she was a gymnast and had secured a ticket to Mexico City, where in October she would participate in the games of the nineteenth Olympiad, in all the women's artistic gymnastics specialties. That would be her third Olympics.

She came into prominence in 1960 in Rome, winning the silver medal in the team competition, but rose to global acclaim four years later, in Tokyo, winning three individual gold medals and another silver still in the team competition.

She was the new star of women's gymnastics.

In that spring of 1968, Vera had left Prague along with all the other athletes of the national team to endure the final training sessions on the road to Mexico City.

Sometimes seasons don’t follow the course of nature. It was on August 20 when spring gave way to winter and to the treads of tanks. The tanks had come to announce winter, but also to seek the hands that had signed the manifesto of two thousand words.

Among these, the signature of Vera and Emil Zátopek.

Emil rushed to Prague. «They have sent you to crush a counter-revolution that only exists in the minds of a few individuals unworthy of calling themselves socialists. The tanks are not a testimony of democracy. Leave!». These were the words he addressed in Russian to the socialist brothers driving those tanks.

But the ending was different from what Master Sergei Eisenstein impressed on the film of «The Battleship Potemkin». The tanks did not abandon Prague and closed spring in blood.

Emil’s hands were among those that had signed the manifesto. He lost the rank of lieutenant colonel and was expelled from the army. «For having spread false news and having conducted himself contrary to the orders of the ministry». He was expelled from the party. «For not understanding the fundamental problems of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism». He was sentenced to work in the mines.

Emil endured for three years before yielding to pressure and recanting. «I am sorry for having been among those who recklessly poured oil on the flames. These flames could have flared up and endangered the socialist world. I have had the opportunity to realize what I saw right and what I saw wrong. Why then should I oppose this regime?». This was the statement that appeared in Rude Pravo, the organ of the communist party.

The recantation secured Emil employment at the sports documentation center in Prague. After a suitable period of re-education, he was readmitted to the party on September 19, 1977.

Vera had fled to the mountains, like a partisan. To continue her training on the road to Mexico City. Meadows, branches, lumber were her gym and her equipment.

«After what you have done, you can no longer send a delegation of athletes to the Olympics in Mexico City. For you, the Olympics have ended here, in Prague». Thus decreed that same hand that with a banal stroke of the pen had set the tanks in motion towards Prague.

But it didn’t have the strength to stop Vera. Who had signed the manifesto and hadn't recanted it. And on October 10, 1968, she boarded for Mexico City.

She would have been re-educated, and she would have paid for her guilt upon returning home. Because she would return.

When she landed in Mexico City, on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony, Vera was shattered, morally and physically. She was aware that winter had prematurely fallen in Czechoslovakia and it would be very harsh. Her hands, her feet were plagued by painful calluses, her body was swollen with bruises.

Vera doesn’t give up.

She competes in every specialty. She has the power to enchant. Vera is not just a gymnast but an artist. When she twirls, she spins like the première étoile of the most prestigious opera theater. She makes anyone fall in love with her.

She wins three gold medals and two silvers.

The silver medal on the beam comes due to a disputed and controversial decision by the jury, which favored the exercise of the Soviet gymnast Natalia Alexandrovna Kuchinskaya.

Vera wins the fourth gold medal, for the floor exercise. Behind her, two Soviet gymnasts.

Then it happens that the jury, after the competition, reviews and increases the score of Larisa Leonidovna Petrik.

So that Vera ascends to the highest step of the podium alongside Larisa.

Side by side on the flagpole, the Czechoslovak and Soviet flags rise. The band plays the Soviet anthem.

Vera had signed the manifesto, had not recanted but had fled to the mountains.

Now, on that podium in Mexico City, next to Larisa, Vera tilts her face to the right, clenches her jaw, and tightens her fists. The Soviet flag she does not look at.

She would have been re-educated, and she would have paid for her guilt upon returning home. Because she would return.

Vera endures her guilt till the end, withstands re-education.

«If I had renounced that hope, the people who believed in freedom would have lost faith and courage. I wanted them to at least retain hope».

She dies a civil death. Until 1989.

On August 30, 2016, Vera dies physically, from pancreatic cancer.