The bronze legend was like Quasimodo after the crash. She threw away the fear immediately
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Dana Spálenská was born as Beldová on February 10, 1950. Father Jaroslav Belda and mother Anastázie Beldová lived in Smržovka in Jablonec region. Jaroslav Belda was a well-known official of the luge sport and brought his daughter Dana to it. She had a sister who was five years older, who also competed in sledding, but she stopped after an injury. Dana Spálenská achieved her first big success while still a student at the secondary grammar school in Tanvald. In Berchtesgaden, West Germany, she won the title of Junior European Champion in 1968. In the same year, she went to the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, where she finished sixth. As one of the first female athletes - Olympians, she took femininity tests at the time, and successfully passed them. In 1969, she won second place at the European Junior Championship in Hammarstrand, Sweden. After secondary grammar school, she completed her education at the high school for rehabilitation nurses and started working at the hospital in Tanvald. The senior doctor MUDr. Leraus allowed her to go for training sessions and races without any problems. In 1970, she had a serious accident on the track in Mariánské Lázně, but quickly returned to racing. She did not travel to the Olympics in Sapporo in 1972, the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee did not send any male or female sledders sledders there due to lack of money. In November 1972, her daughter Lucie was born, in December she started training again. In 1975 she won a bronze medal at the World Championships in Hammarstrand, a year later she finished her representative career with 10th place at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. A post-Olympic discussion in a small village contributed to its conclusion. One convinced communist accused her of criticizing an orange representational clothing at some meeting, which was not true. After she stopped racing, she coached children. She continued to work at the hospital in Tanvald, after 1989 she started her own business as a physiotherapist. In 2022, she lived in Smržovka.
