Sportsperson of the Year (Czechoslovakia)

Three young women standing on a sportspodium with medals around their necks. The winner, standing in the middle on the top, is wearing a gymnastics dress with a little lion on her left arm. The silver and bronze medalists, standing on the sides, are wearing casual sports clothes with a sign "DDR". The winner and the silver medalist are smiling happily, the bronze medalist looks serious.
Věra Čáslavská, an artistic gymnast, stands on the top of the podium at the 1967 European Championships.

Sportsperson of the Year (Czech: Sportovec roku, Slovak: Športovec roka) was a prize awarded annually to the best athletes of Czechoslovakia from 1959 to 1992 by the Club of Czechoslovak Sports Journalists. The first winner was white-water canoer Vladimír Jirásek. From 1961 the prize was also given to the best sports team; the first team recipient was the Czechoslovakia national ice hockey team. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the prize has continued in both successor countries as the Sportsperson of the Year of the Czech Republic[1] and the Sportsperson of the Year of Slovakia.[2]

The individual prize was usually awarded to a single sportsperson, but on two occasions, two people received it – Eva Romanová and Pavel Roman (ice dancers) in 1962, and the Pospíšil brothers (cycle-ball players) in 1979. The prize was given to 28 different athletes, 22 men and 6 women, in 23 sports disciplines. Gymnast Věra Čáslavská won the prize four times, the most of any sportsperson.She was also the sole recipient to have received it in three consecutive years (from 1966 to 1968). Six individuals were awarded the prize more than once.[3]

The team prize was won by teams in 12 sport disciplines; all winners but one were national teams. The only time members of a sports club team were awarded the Sportsperson of the Year was the Dukla Prague handball team, in 1963. Ice hockey teams were given the award six times – most of all disciplines. Ice hockey goaltender Josef Mikoláš and cross-country skier Květa Jeriová were the only people who won both the individual and the team prize[3] (Mikoláš as a member of the Czechoslovakia national ice hockey team at 1961 World Championships[4] and Jeriová as a member of ski relay at the 1984 Winter Olympics[5]). Men's teams received the prize 20 times, and women's teams won it 3 times. From 1970 to 1977, and in 1979, the team prize was not awarded. The team award was won back to back twice, by the men's national ice hockey team in 1968 and 1969, and by the men's national ski-relay team in 1988 and 1989.[3]

  1. ^ "Historie ankety Sportovec roku" (in Czech). Klub sportovních novinářů ČR. Archived from the original on 2007-02-26. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  2. ^ "Športovcom roka 2007 Michal Martikán". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press, a. s. 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
  3. ^ a b c "Historické výsledky" (in Czech). Klub sportovních novinářů ČR. 2013. Retrieved 2015-03-22.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mikolas was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Sušić, Anto; et al. (1984). Sarajevo '84 (PDF) (in English, French, and Serbo-Croatian). Organising Committee of the XlVth Winter Olympic Games 1984 at Sarajevo. p. 40. Archived from the original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)