Gabriela Soukalová - Svobodová

“When we did sports, we had a pretty one-sided view of things. We wanted to do sports, we didn’t care about what went on in society. We had everything we needed, we could travel, we had good pay, decent conditions... They paid all of our training camps. If you had a job, you got a refund for three weeks of training. You didn’t feel anything was amiss. The only thing amiss was that the grocer’s only had apples, cabbages, onions, and potatoes. Before crossing the borders home we’d always stop by in Freistadt and do some shopping, so we could at least show people at home what vegetables look like.”

"At the Olympics, it was like living in a prison, there were triple fences and cars kept driving around. And even the coaches' accommodation looked like a stadium with wooden cubicles put on it. There were no doors and the coaches lived in cubicles, and not just ours but all of them. We lived in cells with female guards, and guys were guarded by men. We weren't allowed to visit each other, the men weren't allowed to the women and vice versa, that's just the way it was. Then again, in the common areas there were things we had never seen, like games. I played table football with Dáša (Palečková, a teammate) and such. We strained our arms and almost couldn't go racing; it hurt so bad we could barely hold the ski poles." "Was it table football with the swivel poles?" "We just fired away; we weren't used to it and we acted like teenagers. The cells we lived in were terrible: just wire mesh, a bed, not even a wardrobe, wire mesh shelves, and thick doors. But when we closed the door, it was good. There were these game rooms and TV sets, a day dining room and a night dining room, Asian and European cuisine, and the amenities were really good."

"So I thought, I have to take a chance now. Either I will get dragged through mud for screwing up, or I'll be tactical. So I chose not to make the same mistake and came in a close fourth. Květa (Jeriová), as you've seen, did tremendously well in the race. As for the party, I remember that, but I was drawn for a doping test. They received an ovation and were partying, and I was sitting a doping test. They gave me different drinks and I sat there for so long, but I couldn't do it. I was trying to urinate for an hour. The ovation they received went a little bit beyond me."

“We had a team of 120 people for the Olympics in Lake Placid, forty of which were [ice] hockey players. We were accompanied by seventy functionaries - everyone wanted to go to the Olympics because it was something exotic, attractive. When in America they made trips to the Niagara Falls, and it didn’t even occur to them that they should be watching our efforts. They didn’t give a hoot about us. And our team actually placed fourth in the relay! We didn’t understand how it was possible.”

"It wasn't special; we were in this room where they were preparing us for the announcement. We drank a tiny bit, yet it was enough I guess, and we were in a good mood, which you can see in the photos. So were the Norwegians." "I know some of the officials and support team members more or less expected that, and they had something in store. Where did it come from, so that we could party? It just came up." "Any partying had to take place outside the village; nothing got to the Olympic Village except by some route we didn't know. Dáša Hromádková and I were at a party later on in the evening where (Juan Antonio, president of the International Olympic Committee) Samaranch was too, and the medalists were invited. There, of course, we could have whatever we wanted. That was one of the reasons we didn't want to race the 20 because we had to go back to the Olympic Village. It was already closed, under curfew, and we were climbing the fence because we couldn't get in. I remember the dogs. Then finally somebody found us and opened the gate. We were up on about a five-metre fence. We were hanging there and needed to climb over. There were dogs there. So, yes, there used to be parties. The management team always brought something. I think they expected it. There was always an excuse to party, success or failure."