“In 1945, when Sokol was renewed, I joined it, and because the sisters knew of me already, they signed me up for the trainer’s school in Prague. So I obtained a trainer’s qualification, and they put me in charge of the youth because they said I was the closest to them in age. And we started preparing for the rally in 1948. Those were the fullest, best years. I had enough strength for everything, and it was my main interest. And when you have interest, you also have success, don’t you?”
“Because children at school had to train for the Spartakiads and because the teachers knew me, they kept inviting me, saying: ‘Come and help us, come and have a look how we train for it.’ So I went to see every performance that the children had. I don’t think the Spartakiads were bad, it meant the children could keep on [exercising], but it ended up just being for show.”
“I didn’t think about it, and I didn’t expect to see it change. But as soon as it did, it was clear. It was decided within a moment. I came back as a trainer, and I was given those wonderful youths again, and I was back in Sokol life as I had imagined it as a child: pranks, races, but no chasing after extreme performances. A wonderful life of goodwill, great friendship. And the older you got, the more you felt it.”
“Then there were the summer holidays, and when I came to the gym hall in September, I called for a line-up, and before we started training, one former [Sokol] sister stepped forward and said that the Sokol committee did not wish me to continue because I had a bad influence on the youth in Prague. So they expelled me, and I didn’t exercise again until 1990.”
photo: dobová: archiv pamětnice, současná : V. Faltýnek
photo: dobová: archiv pamětnice, současná : V. Faltýnek
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Věra Šašková was born on 25 January 1926 in Kladno. Her father was a driver at the Prague Ironworks Company. Her parents exercised with Sokol, and so they applied her to join Sokol at the age of six. She soon proved to have a talent for sports, and she joined the local rhythmic gymnastics group. During the war Sokol was banned. The witness attended grammar school from 1937. After the liberation she continued with Sokol, this time as a trainer, and she commuted to Prague for lessons in dancing and choreography by the renowned dancer Milča Mayerová. Together with her brother Karel Lébr she organised exercising for women, especially for female employees of Poldi Steelworks. The year 1948 was a breaking point in her life, as she and her (young) trainees participated in the All-Sokol Rally in Prague. The action committee subsequently accused her of being a bad influence for them because during when they were passing through Old Town Square with the big parade, the trainees turned away from the grandstand with the new Czechoslovak president Klement Gottwald. That meant the end of Sokol for Věra for the next forty-two years. In 1949 she married, and she spent the following years raising the three children she had with her husband. She returned to Sokol after the Velvet Revolution. Until recently she exercised actively, and she even participated in the All-Sokol Rally in 2012. For her lifelong achievements the Czech Sokol Community awarded her with its Gold Medal. Věra Šašková passed away on May, the 18th, 2015.
