Fencers gain sporting immortality thanks to the Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský Award for 2024

He did not vote for his team himself, yet fencer Jiří Beran held above his head the Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský Award for the best sporting performance of 2024. The prestigious award, the winner of which is chosen by the athletes themselves, went to the Olympic bronze medallists from Paris - the fencing team, which alongside Beran consisted of Michal Čupr, Jakub Jurka and Martin Rubeš.

"It is one of the most beautiful awards because it is voted by the athletes. I've been voting honestly since 2016, but it's also hard for athletes to decide. I didn't vote for us, I'm pleasantly surprised. It means that the athletes wanted to give us immortality in the form of engraving on this award," said Jiri Beran.

It took him a while to accept the trophy, weighing 29 kilograms, from Nicole Kučerová, chairwoman of the Czech Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission, as he and his teammates played rock paper scissors to see who would be the first to accept the award. "The results were quite close. The top ten included not only Olympians but also representatives of non-Olympic sports. It was very colourful," Kučerová described.

Bronze medal duel at the Grand Palais - an experience of a lifetime

The nominations of the sports associations and the Czech Olympic Committee are complemented by members of the Athletes' Commission. They elected Olympic speed canoeing champions Josef Dostál and Martin Fuksa, promising speed skater Metoděj Jílek, Paralympic swimming champion David Kratochvíl, and Wimbledon tennis queen Barbora Krejčíková to the top ten, Martin Maciek, winner of the Dakar Rally in the truck category, Olympic bronze medallist in the javelin throws Nikola Ogrodnikova, Olympic mixed doubles champions Kateřina Siniaková and Tomáš Macháč, a team of hockey world champions and a team of bronze medallists.

Cena Jiřího Stanislava Gutha Jarkovského - šermíři

The award winners were then voted for by members of the Czech Olympic team from the Pyeongchang 2018, Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024 Games, the European Games in Minsk 2019 and Krakow 2023, the World Games in Wroclaw 2017 and Birmingham 2022 and the World Beach Games 2019 in Doha.

"The winners are surprising, but the Jiri Guth-Jarkovsky Award cannot be questioned, it is the will of the athletes," said Jiri Kejval, president of the Czech Olympic Committee. Sports Director and Head of Olympic Missions Martin Doktor added: "The bronze medal match of the fencers at the Grand Palais against the home French was one of my best fan experiences."

Medal brought a rush into clubs

Substitute Michal Čupr, who jumped into the bronze medal match, recalled: "We believed there could be a medal. We knew that we could beat all the teams, but we could also lose to them. We were most afraid of the French. It was even more exciting to fence against them in front of the home crowd."

Jakub Jurka closed the match and turned it in favour of the Czech team. "It was the biggest sporting pressure in my life. But it worked. And I'm very impressed with the prize."

The Olympic medal has awakened a huge interest in fencing. "At the end of September, we all blew up our gyms. The rush was bigger than we imagined. And specifically in our respective clubs it was enormous. I'm very happy that fencing is coming to the fore more and more," said Martin Rubes.

The Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský Award is given for the most valuable sporting performance of the previous year. It was created in 1933, the author of the sculpture of the goddess Nike (Victory) is Otakar Španiel. The award of the founder of Czech Olympism was first received in 1934 by weightlifter Václav Pšenička. In the post-war era, the last person to receive it was the runner Emil Zátopek in 1948. The tradition of this award has continued again since 1994. Among its holders are Jan Železný, Kateřina Neumannová and Roman Šebrle, the Nagano hockey players. Three-time winners are Martina Sáblíková and Lukáš Krpálek. This year, for the eleventh time, the winners were chosen by the athletes themselves.