Tennis star Helena Sukova talks about this and past Olympics
The Czech Republic is in the grip of Olympic fever. Thousands of Czechs have travelled to Athens for the Olympic games and those who couldn't make the trip are taking days off from work, buying new TV sets and placing bets on the winners. Czech bookmakers predict that the Czech team will be at least as successful as it was in the last games in Sydney -where it won eight medals in all. This year three of the biggest Czech medal hopefuls are the canoeist Stepanka Hilgertova in the wild water slalom, Roman Sebrle, the first person in the world to exceed the magic 9000 points mark in the decathlon, and the 31-year-old pistol shooter, Martin Tenk. Among those who will be rooting for the Czechs is none other than the Czech-born tennis star Helena Sukova. Sukova won silver medals in doubles at the 1988 and 1996 Olympics. She has gold and silver medals from Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open. This year, for the first time, she will be a mere spectator at the games. Dita Asiedu spoke to her shortly before her departure for Athens.
Is there anyone special you'd like to see win a medal?
"Well, my brother will be playing the doubles there, so I will be cheering for him for sure. And then I'll be cheering for all the other Czech players and athletes as well."
You just said this is the first time you're just going to be a spectator. You've won silver medals in doubles at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and in 1996 in Atlanta, what were those experiences like?
"My favourite was Seoul. It was my first Olympics and after that we were not able to make the exhibition tennis sport at the Olympics in Los Angeles. Seoul was very nice and the atmosphere was perfect and I still have very good memories of that. But in the finals we were two points away from the gold so we were a little disappointed after the match but with time I was happy to have the silver. In Atlanta too, we had the chance to win gold but overall Seoul was the best experience."
Can you tell us what it is like to be at the Olympics with other great Czech sportsmen and women?
"The Olympics is special because you stay in a village where you see all the other athletes, not only from the Czech Republic but from other countries too and you know their results from the newspaper or television and you see them there and sometimes have the opportunity to see their events and see how they compete. It is special because you can finally cheer them up by being there personally."
Your professional career began in 1981 and continued through 1998, actually both during and after the Communist period. How has that differed?
"I would say there was no difference on the tournament level, you still competed at the same places against the same players. The only difference was that there were more check-ups at the customs before the revolution but other than that...with time you tend to forget all the bad things that were there."
In 1999, you helped re-establish the Czech International Tennis Club...
"Those are clubs that are now in existence in 34 countries around the world and they are basically there to promote the fairness and fair play of the tennis game. It's also a place where past and present tennis players meet to socialise, form friendships, get together. The clubs play against each other. So, it's basically to promote the good parts of the tennis game."
Where do you think is Czech tennis going today?
"It's difficult to say. Probably every country has its good periods and its bad periods and we had very good ones from the time my mother used to play in the finals of Wimbledon in 1962. Then we had Kodes winning Wimbledon in 1972. Of course, there were Martina Navratilova, Lendl and Mandlikova. So, we had very good times from the sixties to the nineties with I think Korda in the last top ten. So, now is probably the time when we do not have the 'greats' anymore. I think the top male player ranks thirtieth and the top female around fiftieth. It could also have something to do with the changes after 1989 because less effort was put into junior tennis and it's just the penalties we are paying off now.
"A few years ago, we established a Kids and Junior Tennis Advancement Organisation, which tries to promote tennis in the Czech Republic because now you have less and less kids entering the tennis clubs from the start. You know, in the past, tennis schools chose who they took and who they didn't take. Nowadays, they are happy if someone comes, so they take everybody. We went around schools around the Czech Republic and are doing exhibition lessons for kids in first and second grade because at the moment we do not have great players so the popularity of tennis is not as much as it used to be."
