Public will have chance to pay last respects to Czech gymnastics legend Čáslavská

The public will have a chance to pay their last respects to the Czech gymnastics legend Věra Čáslavská, who died this week at the age of 74, in the National Theatre on September 12. The commemorative event will be organised by the Czech Olympic Committee. The family of Věra Čáslavská had turned down proposals for a state funeral. The most successful ever Czech Olympic athlete, who won seven gold medals in the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games, was also a vocal critic of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia and persecuted for signing the pro-reform manifesto "Two Thousand Words".