Josef Odložil (; 11 November 1938 – 10 September 1993) was a Czech middle-distance runner. During the 1960s he was a national champion on numerous occasions but had mixed success at international level.Josef Odložil
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 1 February 2015. He won a silver medal in the 1500 metres at the

1964 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this h ...

Running career

An avid runner since early age, Odložil began training with a coach at a military school in Bratislava. At his first major competition, the

1962 European Athletics Championships Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita ...

in Belgrade, Odložil was eliminated in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since th ...

semi-final. Two years later he ran

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athle ...

at the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this h ...

in Tokyo.

Peter Snell Sir Peter George Snell (17 December 1938 – 12 December 2019) was a New Zealand middle-distance runner. He won three Olympic gold medals, and is the only man since 1920 to have won the 800 and 1500 metres at the same Olympics, in 1964. Snel ...

easily won the final, but Odložil managed to get silver ahead of John Davies. In 1965 Odložil set a new world record on 2000 m (5:01,2). The

1966 European Athletics Championships The 8th European Athletics Championships were held from 30 August to 4 September 1966 in the Nép Stadium in Budapest, Hungary. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. A new IAAF ruling was applied for t ...

were disastrous for Odložil as he was eliminated already in the heats. He did better at the

1967 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1967 European Indoor Games were held at Sportovní hala, Prague, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic) from 11 March to 12 March 1967. The track used for the championships was 150 metres long. Medal summary Men Women Medal table ...

in Prague, taking silver in the 1500 m, but at the 1968 Olympics finished only eighth in the 1500 m. Odložil retired in 1969.

Retirement

After retiring from competitions Odložil, a career military officer, was also forced to retire from the

Czechoslovak Army The Czechoslovak Army ( Czech and Slovak: Československá armáda) was the name of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1918 following Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence from Austria-Hungary. History In the f ...

, for political reasons. He turned into coaching, first at ''Sparta Prague'' and then at the Institutio Nacional del Deporte in Mexico (1979–1981). In 1989 he was reinstated in the Army, and served there until his death. In 1992–1993 he was commander of UN peacekeepers in Iraq (

UNGCI The United Nations Guards Contingent in Iraq (UNGCI) mission was based on U.N. resolutions 706/1991 and 712/1991, aimed at the safe flow of international humanitarian support for the people of Iraq following the liberation of Kuwait, and during ...

) representing Czechoslovakia.

Personal life and death

At the 1964 Olympics Odložil became a close friend of the winner,

, and after the Olympics visited him in New Zealand. Shortly after the 1968 Olympics, Odložil married the famous gymnast

Věra Čáslavská en, the love of Tokyo ja, 「オリンピックの名花」 en, darling of the Olympic Games , country = Czechoslovakia , formercountry = , birth_date = , birth_place = Prague, Czechoslovakia ( occupied by Germany 1939– ...

. The ceremony, which took place at the

Mexico City Cathedral The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven ( es, Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de la Bienaventurada Virgen María a los cielos) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mex ...

, drew a crowd of thousands. The couple had a son, Martin, and daughter, Radka. They divorced in 1987. On 7 August 1993 Odložil had a quarrel with his 19-year-old son. Martin hit him in the head, which resulted in a prolonged coma and death on 10 September 1993. Martin was sentenced to four years of imprisonment for his father's murder, but was granted a pardon by president

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...

in 1997, because the degree of fault on his father's death was not well proven.

Legacy

Since 1994 an athletic meet

Josef Odložil Memorial The Josef Odložil Memorial ( cs, Memoriál Josefa Odložila) is an annual track and field meeting which takes place in June at Stadion Juliska (until 2001 at Stadion Evžena Rošického) in Prague, Czech Republic. The competition was first held ...

is held annually in his memory.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Odlozil, Josef 1938 births 1993 deaths People from Otrokovice Czechoslovak male middle-distance runners Czech male middle-distance runners Olympic athletes of Czechoslovakia Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Czechoslovakia Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in the Czech Republic Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Czechoslovak military personnel Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade silver medalists for Czechoslovakia Sportspeople from the Zlín Region