110th anniversary of the Czech Olympic Committee

In June 1894, the Olympic Games were revived. This became possible mainly thanks to the tremendous efforts of Pierre de Coubertin from France. He used the occasion of the International Congress on Amateurism to fulfill his life-long dream. At the end of the Congress, the participants agreed that the Olympic Games will be held, as in Greek Antiquity, once every four years, but that the competitions would have a distinctly modern character.

In June 1894, the Olympic Games were revived. This became possible mainly thanks to the tremendous efforts of Pierre de Coubertin from France. He used the occasion of the International Congress on Amateurism to fulfill his life-long dream. At the end of the Congress, the participants agreed that the Olympic Games will be held, as in Greek Antiquity, once every four years, but that the competitions would have a distinctly modern character. The Congress also approved the Olympic Committee nominated by Pierre de Coubertin. The members of the Committee were charged with propagating Olympic ideals in their respective countries of origin. One of the first twelve members of the committee was a Czech high school teacher Jiří Guth, whose membership was thank to the good reputation of the Czech sports society, Česká obec sokolská.

In April 1896, Guth took part in the first modern Olympic Games and the first IOC session in Athens. During the session, the principles of the Olympic Movement were discussed – and in particular whether the movement would function on an inter-state or international level. Thanks to the support of Pierre de Coubertin, Jiří Guth managed to promote the principle of national, rather than state Olympic committees. The Czechs could therefore participate in the Games as a separate entity and win medals for their own nation, not for Austria-Hungary. However, in 1914 the Olympic Congress in Paris agreed on a principle “one state – one Olympic committee” and the Czechs had to leave the Olympic Family. WWI started soon after, followed by the foundation of a new state – Czechoslovakia. The Czech Olympic Committee was born on May 18th 1899 in order to ensure the participation of Czech athletes at the II Olympic Games in Paris, 1900. The committee was for many years in the hands of its president, Jiří Guth, and his helpers Josef Rossler-Ořovský and Václav Rund. In 1900, the Czech Olympic Committee was already a stable committee working to provide athletes with continuous help, rather than just support during the Games (it was the first committee to do so). In October 1916, the Committee was discontinued due to pressure from officials, but it resumed during the last days of WWI, on October 31st 1918.

On June 13th 1919, the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee was officially established to represent all athletes from Czechoslovakia, regardless of their nationality. Jiří Guth – by then known as Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský – remained its president. He was also deeply respected by the International Olympic Movement. In April 1919, he became general secretary of the IOC and the “right hand man” to Pierre de Coubertin. Their cooperation resulted in the finalizing of the Olympic Charter, a codification of the fundamental principles of Olympism, rules and byelaws.

The international recognition of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee was manifested by the fact that Prague was chosen to host the VIII Olympic Congress in May 1925. The Congress brought about several changes in the Olympic Movement. During a regular IOC meeting Pierre de Coubertin resigned as the IOC president and was replaced by Henri de Baillet-Latour from Belgium. The International Winter Sports Week took place at the beginning of 1924 and was retroactively named the First Olympic Winter Games. The future of an Olympic event dedicated exclusively to winter sports was assured. The participation of women in the Games increased, especially in the field of athletics and gymnastics.

At the end of 1920s, the “old officials” surrendered to the pressure of a younger generation who called for more participation in leadership of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee. In March 1929, Josef Gruss was elected the new president. Another important person of that time was František Widimský. The beginning of the new leadership of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee was marked by the economic crisis. In addition, both Summer and Winter Games in 1932 were to be held on the distant American continent. After the crisis, new problems appeared when the IOC decided that the next Olympic host country should be Germany whose fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, wanted to use the Games to propagate his regime. On one hand there was a call from some quarters to move the Games to a different country and city, or even to boycott them altogether, whilst on the other hand German athletes from the Czech Republic strove to compete at the games as a separate group.

The Czechoslovak Olympic Committee declined their requested with reference to the Olympic Charter principle of a united representation of one state. When Czechoslovakia divided into two countries in March 1932, two national committees were established – the National Committee of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the Slovak NOC. Their work, as well as the participation of the athletes, was ended at beginning of September 1939 with the outbreak of war. Once again, the Committee was dissolved, this time at the end of April 1942. Immediately after WWII, the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee resumed its function – on May 15th 1945, and with almost the same membership. It was reestablished as a committee for the whole country; but it nevertheless coexisted with the Slovak NOC for more than two years. Finally, in summer of 1947, the Slovaks also became members of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee – one of them, Ladislav Brežný, even as a vice-president. More complicated were the discussions concerning the independence of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee. After May 1945, the union of the Czechoslovak Physical Education organizations was discussed, and it was finally carried out by the communist regime at the end of March 1948. The Czechoslovak Olympic Committee formally supported the union, but in reality, it tried to avoid the unification tendencies referring to the Olympic Charter and the requirement for the independence of individual national committees. It gave up only on December 19th 1951. After this it continued to work only as a special commission of the physical education organization, in the form of a “working body, but not a legal subject”, first under Česká obec sokolská, a year later under the National Committee for Physical Education and Sport, and from March 1957 as a part of the Czechoslovak Physical Education Federation. A communist official, Vilém Mucha, became its president and Karel Popel its general secretary.

On December 21st 1992, the founding meeting of the Czech Committee took place, following the long tradition that started in 1899. Věra Čáslavská was elected its president. On December 19th 1996, the Czech Olympic Committee gained new leadership: Milan Jirásek was elected its president.

At the beginning of July 2003, Prague hosted the 115th IOC Session during which Vancouver Canada was chosen to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. At the same time, Prague announced its intention to bid to host a future Olympic Games. At the beginning of January 2008, an application to host the 2016 Olympic Games was sent to Lausanne. Unfortunately this application lacked the necessary governmental support. This was why the IOC did not accept Prague as a candidate city at its meeting in March 2008.

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