Czech Republic at the 1994 Winter Olympics

Last updated
Czech Republic at the
1994 Winter Olympics
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg
IOC code CZE
NOC Czech Olympic Committee
Website www.olympic.cz  (in Czech and English)
in Lillehammer
Competitors63 (47 men and 16 women) in 7 sports
Flag bearer Pavel Benc (cross-country skiing)
Medals
Gold
0
Silver
0
Bronze
0
Total
0
Winter Olympics appearances (overview)
Other related appearances
Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia (1924–1992)

The Czech Republic competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. It was the first Winter Games since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, and so the Czech Republic and Slovakia competed as independent teams.

Contents

Cross-country skier Pavel Benc was the flag-bearer of the country in the opening ceremony – he thus had a chance to lead the last Winter Olympic Czechoslovak team in Albertville and the first ever Czech team in Lillehammer.

Although the three medals won by Czechoslovakia in Albertville in 1992 were all won by Czech athletes (the ice hockey team had also three Slovaks), the result of Lillehammer Olympics were less satisfying as fifth places of ice hockey and Nordic combined teams were the Czech Republic’s best results. It can be explained with the growth of competition as the former Soviet Union countries entered their athletes (only Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia participated in the 1992 Winter Olympics besides the Unified Team).

Competitors

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games. [1]

SportMenWomenTotal
Biathlon 4610
Bobsleigh 44
Cross-country skiing 6511
Figure skating 358
Ice hockey 2222
Nordic combined 44
Ski jumping 44
Total471663

Biathlon

Men
AthleteEventFinal
TimePen.Rank
Petr Garabík 10 km Sprint30:31.2121
20 km Individual59:48.9111
Jiří Holubec 10 km Sprint30:45.2229
20 km Individual1:00:18.9117
Tomáš Kos 10 km Sprint31:52.0146
Ivan Masařík 20 km Individual1:01:46.0334
Petr Garabík
Tomáš Kos
Ivan Masařík
Jiří Holubec
4 × 7.5 km Relay1:35:26.0012
Women
AthleteEventFinal
TimePen.Rank
Irena Česneková 15 km Individual59:29.0450
Eva Háková 7.5 km Sprint26:48.219
15 km Individual57:43.2635
Iveta Knížková 7.5 km Sprint28:18.3334
15 km Individual57:23.7634
Jiřína Pelcová 7.5 km Sprint29:23.0349
15 km Individual58:07.3337
Gabriela Suvová 7.5 km Sprint30:25.8463
Jana Kulhavá
Jiřína Pelcová
Iveta Knížková
Eva Háková
4 × 7.5 km Relay1:57:00.837

Bobsleigh

Jiří Džmura and Pavel Polomský became most successful Czech bobsledders in Lillehammer Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track. They finished fifth in the first run of two-men bobsleigh competition, falling slowly in the results to eventually finish in seventh tied with Canada’s Pierre Lueders. In the four-men competition, the Czech team went through the competition in the opposite manner – starting 14th and moving up step by step to the 10th-place finish with a fifth best fourth run.

AthleteEventFinal
Run 1Run 2Run 3Run 4TotalRank
Jiří Dzmura
Pavel Polomský
Two-man52.6653.1853.0253.323:32.187
Pavel Puškár
Jan Kobián
Two-man53.4453.4253.5453.853:34.2520
Jiří Dzmura
Pavel Puškár
Pavel Polomský
Jan Kobián
Four-man52.3552.4552.3152.403:29.5110

Cross-country skiing

Kateřina Neumannová presented a huge leap in form since last Olympics, finishing only 13 seconds behind podium in 5 km classical and moving up to sixth place in the pursuit. She recorded the second best time on her third leg of women’s relay (losing only to Russia’s Nina Gavrilyuk) and had the leading role in the ninth-place finish of the Czech relay team as other women had 11th to 13th times in their respective legs.

Men participated with almost the same squad like in Albertville, but their performances were far worse than in French Alps.

Men
AthleteEventFinal
StartRankTimeRankTotalRank
Pavel Benc 10 km Classical27:38.665
15 km Free Pursuit+03:186538:06.118+5:35.336
30 km Free1:18:49.525
Lubomír Buchta 10 km Classical26:17.626
15 km Free Pursuit+01:572638:37.033+4:45.224
50 km Classical2:14:50.020
Václav Korunka 10 km Classical27:22.859
15 km Free Pursuit+03:025938:40.034+5:53.237
Martin Petrásek 10 km Classical28:10.071
15 km Free Pursuit+03:507140:13.853+8:15.058
50 km ClassicalDNF
Jiří Teplý 30 km Free1:17:37.817
Ondrej Valenta 30 km Free1:20:04.134
50 km Classical2:26:08.658
Lubomír Buchta
Václav Korunka
Jiří Teplý
Pavel Benc
4 × 10 km Relay1:47:12.68
Women
AthleteEventFinal
StartRankTimeRankTotalRank
Lucie Chroustovská 15 km Free47:37.848
30 km Classical1:36:07.839
Kateřina Neumannová 5 km Classical14:49.68
10 km Free Pursuit+00:41828:00.86+1:11.76
15 km Free43:25.114
Jana Rázlová 5 km Classical16:39.755
10 km Free Pursuit+02:315533:07.852+8:08.752
30 km Classical1:36:40.942
Martina Vondrová 5 km Classical16:27.347
10 km Free Pursuit+02:194731:24.942+6:13.844
15 km Free45:29.131
30 km Classical1:34:50.136
Iveta Zelingerová 5 km Classical16:15.643
10 km Free Pursuit+02:074330:25.231+5:02.133
15 km Free46:56.341
30 km ClassicalDNF
Martina Vondrová
Iveta Zelingerová
Kateřina Neumannová
Lucie Chroustovská
4 × 5 km Relay1:02:02.19

Figure skating

Radka Kovaříková and René Novotný were fourth in the 1992 Winter Olympics and in 1994 they recorded their fourth consecutive fourth place in the European Championships. Two great pairs-champions however returned this season and were great favorites, which was confirmed as 1988 Olympic champions Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov beat 1992 Olympic champions Nataliya Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev. The Czech couple was not able to fight for a medal in such competition. It finished fifth in the short program, but fell down to sixth in a free program behind United States’ Jenni Meno and Todd Sand. The next year Kovaříková and Novotný however won the Figure Skating World Championships and turned professionals. Kateřina Mrázová and Martin Šimeček recorded their best Olympic finish in ice dancing competition in eighth place in a competition crowned by Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean comeback to the Olympics, 10 years after their revolutionary Bolero.

Women
AthleteFinal
Short ProgramRankFree SkatingTotalRank
Lenka Kulovaná 5.51114.019.513
Irena Zemanová 13.527did not advance
Pairs
AthleteFinal
Short ProgramRankFree SkatingTotalRank
Radka Kovaříková
René Novotný
2.556.08.56
Ice Dancing
AthleteFinal
Compulsory Dance 1RankCompulsory Dance 2RankOriginal DanceRankFree DanceTotalRank
Radmila Chroboková
Milan Brzý
3.2163.2169.61616.032.016
Kateřina Mrázová
Martin Šimeček
1.681.684.888.016.08

Ice hockey

Czech Republic arrived to Lillehammer as the unbeaten winner of the recent Globen Cup, the Swedish part of the European Hockey Tour. The Olympic tournament however had a rather different result. Finland, at the start of the tournament not supposed to be a favorite, was in the lead since the fifth minute power play goal, following three games added the compulsory victories but only win over Germany coached by Luděk Bukač was supported by a good play. The team was not able to beat any of the strong European team and lost to Russia 3-4 to leave it in fourth place in group but to finish only third behind Finland, which hammered Russia, and Germany.

The standings in the other group set a tie against Canada in the quarterfinals. The Czechs lead twice in the game and Canada scores the tying goal five minutes to the end of regulation. In the overtime, Paul Kariya scored the sudden-death power-play goal (Horák served the penalty). The Czechs had to settle with the 5-8th places classification games and avoided surprise beating United States 5-3 after losing to them 0-2 early in the first period. The 5th to 6th place game was the first confrontation of former compatriots, but Slovakia was overmotivated and outplayed 7-1 (the game was decided in the first period, despite losing 0-1 in third minute, the Czechs won it 5-1).

Canada eliminated Czech Republic also in the 1994 World Championships; the two 5th-place finishes forced Ivan Hlinka to withdraw. His successor Luděk Bukač then leads Czech Republic to the 1996 World Championships title, first since 1985 and first of four titles in six years.

Results
StageOpponentResultPointsRank
Group Stage Flag of Finland.svg Finland1-3
Group Stage Flag of Austria.svg Austria7-3
Group Stage Flag of Germany.svg Germany1-0
Group Stage Flag of Norway.svg Norway4-1
Group Stage Flag of Russia.svg Russia3-4
Group Stage16-1163
Quarterfinal Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Canada2-3
Placement Round 5-8 Flag of the United States.svg United States5-3
5th Place Match Flag of Slovakia.svg Slovakia7-15

Nordic combined

The team competition brought a surprising result for the Czech Republic which eventually occurred to be one of the biggest successes of the whole Olympic team. Zbyněk Pánek, Milan Kučera and František Máka all had one good and one worse jump in the ski-jumping competition (Pánek and Kučera were better in the first round, Máka, who was better cross-country skier, bettered his result in the second round). The Czechs started the cross-country relay in sixth place, 10:50 minutes behind sovereign[ clarification needed ] Japanese jumpers.

The relay was not a dramatic one, as no change happened from first to fourth place, Zbyněk Pánek moved the Czechs past Austria to fifth place already in the first leg. Milan Kučera held the place despite his worst cross-country performance and František Máka brought the relay home in fifth ahead of fast-finishing France.

AthleteEventFirst roundSecond roundCross-country
PointsRankPointsTotalRankStartTimeRankTotalRank
Miroslav Kopal Individual event80.04885.0165.048+09:06DNF
Milan Kučera Individual event102.51791.5194.024+05:5341:29.53647:22.531
František Máka Individual event99.524102.0201.517+05:0340:23.22245:26.218
Zbyněk Pánek Individual event89.54181.5171.041+08:2638:58.0547:24.034
Zbyněk Pánek
Milan Kučera
František Máka
Team event306.06297.5603.56+10:501:24:05.961:34:55.95

Ski jumping

Two-time team Olympic medalist Jiří Parma was below par in Lillehammer and thus only Jaroslav Sakala managed to record a good individual result in Lillehammer, finishing seventh in large hill competition, but he did not improve in the next two competitions. In the team competition Parma was the weakest member of the team as Zbyněk Krompolc surprisingly recorded best results of the whole team.

AthleteEventFirst RoundFinal
PointsRankPointsTotalRank
Ladislav Dluhoš Large hill67.43874.4141.830
Normal hill108.531DSQ
Zbyněk Krompolc Large hill90.22461.2151.429
Normal hill106.03583.5189.536
Jiří Parma Large hill88.12536.6124.739
Normal hill118.018108.5226.519
Jaroslav Sakala Large hill113.19108.9222.07
Normal hill109.030126.0235.013
Zbyněk Krompolc
Jaroslav Sakala
Ladislav Dluhoš
Jiří Parma
Team Large Hill401.98398.8800.77

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