"We mentioned shortly Věra Čáslavská's wedding to Mr. Odložil. How do you remember it?" - "We were looking forward to it, we were surprised that there would be something like that. It was an incredible experience, Věra attracted the maximum number of fans there, just to drive out of the Olympic Village in a car was beyond human capability. Everybody was hanging on to cars, we went to the embassy first, there was a crowd there too. Then we went to the cathedral, luckily athletes Fikotová and Daněk were there, making an aisle for the wedding party to get to the sacristy. I have pictures of it, it was crowded there, too. The participants, the scaffolding was there, they were hanging on the scaffolding, on the walls. For the first time, I feared for my life a bit, so we didn't enjoy the atmosphere of a beautiful wedding as much. Even as we were leaving, the organizers were worried something might happen. So we waited an hour or more in the sacristy down below the cathedral for the spectators to calm down and disappear so we could leave." - "Were you afraid of the crowding?" - "Absolutely, it was crowd psychosis altogether. Maybe not everyone felt about it it that way, I did."
"We felt it very strongly. At the time the 'allied troops' came in, we were at a pre-Olympic training camp. We always had two months of training, two phases, before the Olympics and the World Championships. They woke us up at night [and told us] that the tanks were in Šumperk, we thought they were joking, that it was a military exercise. We weren't allowed to go out much, Věra went out to see, which I only found out later from the documentaries. We were locked up in the gym, we listened to the news, we had transistor radios by our equipment, we listened to everything. We didn't know what was going to happen to the nation, to the Olympics. Then came the news that Věra, as she had signed the Two Thousand Words, that she was in danger of going to prison. I'm sure the listeners know the story, so she went to the mountains. And there wasn't much talk about that, Jana Kubičková was with her, they did some of the preparation in the forest. In the end, it turned out that we were going to the Olympics. They invited us to the Castle, the whole Czechoslovak Olympic team, so it was a great experience for me, we met all the leaders, President Svoboda, Mr. Smrkovský, Dubček, Černík. We gave them flowers, they encouraged us. They told us what was going on, but very, I would say, carefully, in case somebody was recording it. It strengthened us a lot, as gymnasts we were leaving being determined and we wanted to beat the Soviet women again."
"I´ll start [talking about] the twelve-year school, I used to get up most mornings at six, I learned everything quickly so that I would keep it in my mind. At school I used to study during breaks, and before school. Then, to make it to training session, at the ten-minute break, the second to last or last one, I'd run down from the third floor for lunch, eat lunch, and go back upstairs. I got home, swapped my bag. It was a tram Nr. 3 ride to the sports hall to training session, hopping on and off the tram. Four hours of training, every day, a massage twice a week, so it was even longer. Then back, dinner at home and I went to bed. As for the University of Chemical Technology, I studied it in the evenings after a year of full-time study, so there were lectures twice a week from two to late evening. When I started at university, Mr. Tráva, the head of the PE department, called me in and said, 'If you don't study four hours a day, you're not going to finish the study.' 'Well, okay, I said, 'Oh dear, and when I am going to do it?! So during every tram ride...I just studied four hours a day, I don't know how I did it."
Bohumila Řešátková, née Řimnáčová, was born on 9 September 1947 in Prague. She had a sister Jaruška, three years younger, and her father Bohumil led them both to sport. Bohumila Řešátková started doing gymnastics at the age of 11, initially she was coached by the Olympic champion and double world champion Eva Bosáková and Vladimír Prorok. In 1964 she switched to coach Slávka Matlochová. She travelled to the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo as a substitute. At the 1966 World Championships in Dortmund she won gold medals with the Czechoslovak team. While being a top gymnast, she studied at the University of Chemical Technology in Prague by distance and evening learning. She finished it after eight years. At the pre-Olympic competitions in Mexico 1967 she was second on uneven bars and first with her team. During the preparation for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, in Šumperk they experienced the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops. In Mexico, she won a silver medal in the team event, finished fourth in the uneven bars and fifth in the floor routine. At the Olympics, she experienced huge support from the world public for the occupied Czechoslovakia. At the 1970 World Championships in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, her team won third place. She traveled to the 1972 Olympics in Munich as a substitute. Then she retired, at the end of her career she suffered from back, mental and weight problems. She married Jan Řešátek, who had a six-year-old son, and together they raised their three other children. At the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport of Charles University, after three years of study, she obtained a first class coaching certificate for sports gymnastics. She was involved in jazz gymnastics, dance and founded sports aerobics club in the Czech Republic. She worked there as a union director and manager. She contributed to the establishment of the Sports and Cultural Centre in Ondřejov. In 2022 she was living in Ondřejov.
1968, reception at Prague Castle after the successful Olympics in Mexico, next to Bohumila Řešátková, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Alexandr Dubček is standing
1968, reception at Prague Castle after the successful Olympics in Mexico, next to Bohumila Řešátková, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Alexandr Dubček is standing
1968, reception at Prague Castle after the successful Olympics in Mexico, Josef Smrkovský, Chairman of the National Assembly is standing next to Bohumila Řešátková (on the right)
1968, reception at Prague Castle after the successful Olympics in Mexico, Josef Smrkovský, Chairman of the National Assembly is standing next to Bohumila Řešátková (on the right)
1968, reception at the Prague Castle after the successful Olympics in Mexico, Prime Minister Oldřich Černík is standing next to Bohumila Řešátková (on the left)
1968, reception at the Prague Castle after the successful Olympics in Mexico, Prime Minister Oldřich Černík is standing next to Bohumila Řešátková (on the left)
The podium at the 1968 Olympics. The Czechoslovak team finished second behind the Soviet sportswomen. Bohumila Řešátková is standing second from the right and waving to the spectators
The podium at the 1968 Olympics. The Czechoslovak team finished second behind the Soviet sportswomen. Bohumila Řešátková is standing second from the right and waving to the spectators
Bohumila Řešátková (second from the left) in 1968 during a meeting with Josef Smrkovský, chairman of the National Assembly. Věra Čáslavská on the far left
Bohumila Řešátková (second from the left) in 1968 during a meeting with Josef Smrkovský, chairman of the National Assembly. Věra Čáslavská on the far left
The Czechoslovak team with silver medals on the podium at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Bohumila Rešátková is standing on the right, Věra Čáslavská in the middle, coach Slávka Matlochová in front
The Czechoslovak team with silver medals on the podium at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Bohumila Rešátková is standing on the right, Věra Čáslavská in the middle, coach Slávka Matlochová in front
Bohumila Rešátková (third from left) on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Věra Čáslavská is on the far left, her coach Slávka Matlochová is in front
Bohumila Rešátková (third from left) on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Věra Čáslavská is on the far left, her coach Slávka Matlochová is in front
After the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, Bohumila Řešátková toured with singer Karel Gott. Emil Zátopek is on the left, the golden shooter from the Mexican Olympics Jan Kůrka is second from the right
After the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, Bohumila Řešátková toured with singer Karel Gott. Emil Zátopek is on the left, the golden shooter from the Mexican Olympics Jan Kůrka is second from the right
