Prague, Sept 12 (CTK) – Czech athletes and politicians attended the mourning ceremony in Prague’s National Theatre for seven-time Olympic winner Vera Caslavska who died of cancer at the age of 74 on August 30 and bells were rung at Saint Wenceslas Cathedral on the exceptional occasion yesterday.
As this is no state funeral, her remains or guard of honour are not there. Caslavska was buried in her family circle last Thursday.
The mourning ceremony started at 9:58 CEST, when the bell called John the Baptist started playing a requiem tune from the southern tower of the church. Two minutes later, it was joined by the bells called Joseph, Dominic and Wenceslas.
The one-hour performance in the National Theatre took place without the public.
Since Friday, people have been laying flowers flowers, lighting candles and signing the books of condolences on a piazzetta outside the National Theatre.
They could also watch the live transmission of yesterday’s programme on a jumbotron there.
Speeches were delivered by Caslavska’s fellow member of the Czechoslovak Olympic team, Slovak gymnast Marika Nemethova-Krajcirova, chairman of the Slovak Olympic Committee Frantisek Chmelar and Japonec Shigeo Okinaka, former representative of Czech Tourism in Japan, who had donated a samurai sword to her for her excellent performance at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
Some successful Czech athletes also delivered speeches at the ceremony.
President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach and Czech President Milos Zeman excused themselves from the ceremony.
However, there was Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and cabinet members. Due to the event, the government has postponed its meeting until Monday afternoon.
Caslavska won a total of seven gold medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 and in Mexico in 1968. She also won four world champion and 11 European champion titles, and was elected Czechoslovakia’s Athlete of the Year four times.
Caslavska was expelled from the Czechoslovak Physical Training Association because of her opposition to the Soviet-led occupation of the country in 1968 and her having signed the Two Thousand Words manifesto supporting the Prague Spring Communist-led reform movement, terminated by the occupation.
Due to this, she fell into disgrace with the authorities. She had to make her living as a cleaner for some years and only later could start training young talented gymnasts.
After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, she was fully rehabilitated and worked as an aide to former president Vaclav Havel in the early 1990s.
