Mgr. Blanka Paulů

* 1954

  • "They just ordered strictly me to do central preparation. Ciller said, 'You have to come with us to Seiser Alm.' But I knew it wasn't good for me because it was the same as it was before Oslo. There was nothing I could do. So I went there. Every time I came back from a great height, I was unwell for a fortnight before I recovered. But I had to go there, so I went there. And it started, and I came back, and the national championship was right after that. I still won it, and I went away, and to keep from catching a cold before the Olympics, I didn't even go home. I traveled to Nové Město to isolate myself, and I felt like I skiing just didn't go well. It was what I had tried before, in 1982. Then there was a terrible journey to Sarajevo, we travelled there by bus for two days with an overnight stay in Bratislava. In the evening I had a press conference, I remember it really badly, there were lights shining on me - and I was promising to win medals. I had already got a mild fever, and it was a full-day bus ride to Sarajevo the next day. I was sick, someone was always opening and closing the window, just terrible. I was riding all day with a mild fever. I went to isolation in the Olympic Village for two days, I was sick. Then I suggested if I could rest and not do the first race. No way. [They said:] 'There's no way!' They were expecting medals, so I did one run. I was out of bed for one day and then there was a race. It took me a long time to dig myself out of it, not even the sickness, I think I dug myself out of it pretty soon. I did well in the relay after that and I must have done well in the 20 when I was fourth. But my mindset was terrible. On top of it all, the snow that was falling was of a sort I was not good with. Maybe the illness didn't even have as big an effect as the snow that I can't really ski on - fresh and soft snow."

  • "Then I went and I had to make the lead, so I came second. Dáša came with a bunch of others, yet totally in touch with the front. I was supposed to make the lead, so I came in second. Gábina had the task of losing as little as possible, she came in fourth, lost two places, but in totally in touch. And Květa had to make the final result. It may seem I make things up, but I suffer from migraines, a lot. And I knew before the start that a migraine would come from the stress. I kept telling myself it couldn't come just now - I just had to make it. I did a really good stretch, but as I got to the finish line and the weight of it came off me, I got a terrible migraine. I finished and went and threw up behind the shed. A headache, a classic migraine that I still suffer from today. I didn't even know how they were struggling in there until afterwards, in such a semi-coma of headache, I went to rejoice with the girls and went to see the last stretch. I didn't even know how Gabina fights there, I didn't really enjoy it. And then I wasn't even in the mood for any celebrations, I still had a headache all afternoon and felt sick."

  • "A new team was put together with Mirka Jaškovská, myself and Gábina Soukalová. Two or three Slovaks, Jana Tašová, Labašková, Milka Šuleková. A completely new team, we started and there was a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of winning enthusiasm. Strangely enough, when I was married, the first year I was put in, I didn't really want to go with them. A few times, I submitted a confirmation from the coach in Vrchlabí, Ilja Matouš, that I couldn't go. I didn't want to go, the first summer really I didn't want to go. But then, when the first snow started, there was no other option. We were a young team. Enthusiasm, huge enthusiasm was half the success. We trained a lot, a lot, but we didn't find it difficult. Huge enthusiasm, and that's what I think brought success at the championship in '74. When we talk to Gabina [then Sekajová, now Soukalová], we call it the golden days of skiing. There was a good vibe in the team, we wanted it badly, I think that was the success. Success came and it seemed to be completely free. We were really successful there, the relay team came third, I came second, fourth, the girls were each just over ten. When we arrived in Prague, there were people waiting and welcoming us. Gábina and I were thinking, 'What are they doing, what kind of glory is this?' We didn't expect anything, we were laughing all the time and we were stress-free. It was all like a piece of cake for us. That was half the success, the mood in the squad. The other coach was Petr Honzl, and the mood on the team was great."

  • "The biggest problem that was bothering me was my brother. Mom was crying that my brother ran away and was back at it. See, for peace of mind, our parents took us to our grandmother's in Choceň a day or two later. I remember that well, I don't know why, maybe dad was involved in something. They drove me and my brother to Choceň right away. I remember we stayed by a huge overpass. There was a huge bridge by the station over these rocks. He always invited me to join him for everything of course. The first thing when we got there, he went up on the bridge to throw rocks at trains that were running loaded with guns, tanks or cannons, I remember vaguely. The first thing we did was throw throw stones down from the bridge at the trains. So we went for it. My parents came to get my brother the very second or third day, as grandmother said she only wanted me there and it was impossible with my brother. The first thing we did was throw stones at the trains... It was really tough with my brother... So parents took him away again."

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    Liberec, 26.02.2024

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She had a lot of bad luck but she pulled three great medals out of it

Blanka Paulů at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, 1984
Blanka Paulů at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, 1984
photo: Witness's archive

Blanka Paulů, née Šafářová, was born in Vrchlabí on 31 March 1954 and had brother Stanislav who was four years older. Their parents Stanislav and Božena moved to Vrchlabí after the war from the Vysoké Mýto area of Eastern Bohemia. They both worked in the Vrchlabí car factory. They led her towards skiing from her early childhood. During the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia in 1968, the parents took teenage Blanka and her adult brother Stanislav to their grandparents in Choceň for security reasons. Under her brother’s guidance, they found a way to express their disapproval of the occupation. They threw stones at trains with Soviet military equipment from an overpass. After primary school, Blanka Paulů enrolled at the grammar school in Jilemnice and got married between her third and fourth years of study. She graduated in 1973. In 1974, she won a silver medal in the 10 km race at the World Nordic Ski Championships, finishing third with the Czechoslovak relay team. She left the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck without a medal. Since then she had issues with the officials of the ski association and with the new coach Zdeněk Ciller. She was kicked out of the national team twice. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid she did not do well in the individual races, finishing fourth in relay. At the 1974 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo she won a silver medal in relay, finishing fourth in the 20 km race. She retired from the national team in 1985. From 1986 she taught and coached at the sports high school in Jilemnice for seventeen years. She won the World Championship for women veterans in hill-climb running ten times in her age groups. In 2024 she lived in Vrchlabí.