Šárka Strachová (, née Záhrobská ; born on 11 February 1985) is a retired Czech

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

alpine ski racer. Born in

Benecko Benecko (german: Benetzko) is a municipality and village in Semily District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,100 inhabitants. It is a winter tourist resort. The village of Horní Štěpanice with timbered cottages is prot ...

, she specializes in the slalom event. Strachová is the first alpine racer representing the Czech Republic to medal at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

and at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

and just the second Czech alpine skier ever to medal in the Olympics.

Ski racing career

Záhrobská won the gold medal in slalom at the 2007

and narrowly missed a bronze in the

super combined Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. A traditional combined competition consists of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom, each discipline runs on separate days. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. (Until the 1990s, ...

, finishing in 4th place by 0.20 seconds. Two years earlier, she won her first medal at the 2005 World Championships, taking the bronze in slalom while placing fifth in the combined. It was the first World Championships medal for a Czech alpine skier. In the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...

, Strachová finished 13th in slalom, 19th in the combined, and 27th in

super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event d ...

; she did not finish the second run of the giant slalom. On the

circuit, Záhrobská made her debut in December 2002 at age 17 and finished 5th in her first race, a parallel slalom (an experimental format using a series of elimination races) in

Sestriere Sestriere (/se'strjɛre/) ( oc, Sestrieras, pms, Ël Sestrier, french: Sestrières) is a ski resort in Piedmont, Italy, a ''comune'' (municipality) of the Metropolitan City of Turin. It is situated in Val Susa, from the French border. Its name ...

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. She ended the 2004 and 2006 seasons ranked in the top 10 in slalom, and broke into the top 30 in the overall ranking in 2006. She reached her first World Cup podium in January 2007, with a third place in the slalom on at

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, and followed it up with a 2nd place in the slalom three days later at

Kranjska Gora Kranjska Gora (; german: Kronau) is a town in northwestern Slovenia, on the Sava Dolinka River in the Upper Carniola region, close to the Austrian and Italian borders. It is the seat of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora. Name Kranjska Gora wa ...

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. This ended a 21-year-long drought for Czech alpine skiers on the World Cup podium, since Olga Charvátová took 2nd place in

Bromont, Quebec Bromont is a city in southern Quebec, Canada, at the base of Mont Brome; it is in the Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality. The Bromont area and its resort, Ski Bromont, is well known as a tourist destination for its downhill skiing, mo ...

, on 22 March

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

. She won her first World Cup race in November

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

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, and reached the podium two additional times in the 2009 season to finish as the runner-up in the season slalom standings. She won again at Aspen in November 2009. At the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gret ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Strachová took the bronze medal in the slalom at Whistler. This made her the first Czech to ever medal in alpine skiing for the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and just the second Czech ever, once again joining Olga Charvátová, who won a bronze in the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

while competing for

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. Strachová has also won numerous medals at the National Alpine Skiing Championships of the

and other nations. She has been the National Champion (i.e. gold medalist) at the Czech (2002: slalom; 2003: slalom, giant slalom and super-G; 2004: slalom, giant slalom; 2005: slalom, giant slalom; 2006: super-G),

n (2006: giant slalom), and

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n (2006: giant slalom) national championships. Her giant slalom victory at the 2006 Croatian championships was by a narrow 0.15 second margin over

Janica Kostelić Janica Kostelić (; born 5 January 1982) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and four-time Olympic gold medalist from Croatia. In addition to the Olympics, she won five gold medals at the World Championships. In World Cup competition, she w ...

, who had just beaten Strachová for the super-G title the previous day and was coming off one of the most dominant seasons in World Cup skiing history. Šárka Strachová and her brother Petr Záhrobský are the only skiers of the Ski Team Krkonoš. Their personal coach is their father Petr Záhrobský. The team has not had good relationships with the Czech Ski Association. The coach protested, especially after the association officials approved the rule that Czech skiers have to prefer their home competitions to the foreign ones, and refused to follow it, stating that Strachová needs better rivals to remain a premier international skier. Šárka Strachová also does not prepare with the rest of the Czech national team because her father believes it would disadvantage her career. Both Šárka Strachová and her brother

Petr Petr is a Czech given name for males and a Czech surname. Petr is the Czech form of ''Peter''. For information on Petr as a first name, see Peter (given name). Given name * Petr Aven (born 1955), Russian billionaire banker, economist and politic ...

race on

Fischer Fischer is a German occupational surname, meaning fisherman. The name Fischer is the fourth most common German surname. The English version is Fisher. People with the surname A * Abraham Fischer (1850–1913) South African public official * A ...

skis. On 28 March 2017 Strachová announced her retirement from professional skiing aged 32.

Personal life

In 2013, she married her long-time boyfriend, Antonín Strach and became Šárka Strachová. On 14 November 2017 Strachová announced her pregnancy.

World Cup results

Season standings

Race podiums

*2 wins – (2 SL) *17 podiums – (17 SL)

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

*
Šárka Strachová
World Cup standings at the International Ski Federation * * * '
Milka Ski Stars
– Šárka Strachová {{DEFAULTSORT:Strachova, Sarka 1985 births Czech female alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Olympic alpine skiers of the Czech Republic Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in alpine skiing Olympic bronze medalists for the Czech Republic People from Semily District Living people