Vladimír Kánský

“A discus thrower, an excellent one – his name was Vydrna. He did more than sixty meters, that was an outstanding performance back then, right? Vydrna. And there was a fellow soldier, he did Combined events, his name was Metelec. And he told Vydrna: “Listen, Jarda, I need to take off. If they would call the register, just say Present! for me.' And he told him he would do it. And indeed, they called the register. A senior soldier would yell: 'Soldier Metelec!' And without a blink of an eye Vydrna said: 'Here!' The trouble was Vydrna had this high-pitched voice of his; as if ten thousand people would yell 'Goal'! you would probably recognise Vydrna among them. He blinked in surprise and he said again: 'Soldier Metelec!' And Vydrna said confidently: 'Here!' So he approached him, looked him closely in the eyes and repeated: 'Soldier Metelec!' Again, Vydrna didn´t blink an eye and said: 'Here!' A he said: 'Soldier Vydrna, I am calling out Metelec.' And he replied: 'Oh, I thought you meant Vydrna.'”

“In 1956, I began to train with the Brandýs crew. With the Brandýs brothers. With Vašek Balšán. And it was great as we were all equal. Let me go back to the social issues for a while. Referee Mikeš, an excellent referee he was of a rather small build, was born in 1902. And we would call him 'František'. There was even a man born in 1894 – I can´t remember his name now – and we would address him as equal. Back then we all would... It was common among the athletes. And today, I was amazed: junior athletes would be training and they had to be so formal! Well, that´s... I don´t like it. That´s like they would address people 'sir' or 'madam' in Sokol, although it should have been 'brother' and 'sister', you see? That isn't right. So we were all equal and we would address everyone by first name.”