Do I regret not staying in Canada? I had a million dreams about it
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Hockey player Jaroslav Benák was born on 3 April 1962 in Havlíčkův Brod and grew up in the nearby village of Olešná. His father was a carpenter, his mother worked in Pleas and later in a cooperative farm. He started playing hockey at the age of four at the local pond, where he was discovered at the age of eight by the coach of the Havlíčkův Brod pupils and juniors. He trained as a machine fitter and in 1981 joined Dukla Jihlava as a defender. Two years later he became a member of the Czechoslovak national team. His greatest achievements include a silver medal for the Czechoslovak team at the Sarajevo Olympics and gold at the 1985 World Championships in Prague. He was registered as a collaborator by the Military Counterintelligence. In 1988, at the Calgary Olympics, he turned down an offer to stay in Canada and become a member of the Calgary Flames, which would have meant emigration; he feared for the fate of his family in Czechoslovakia. After 1990, he played for SaiPa Lappeenranta in Finland and Cortina d‘Ampezzo in Italy, as well as other Czech and foreign teams. In 2002 he retired from active playing career due to knee ligament injuries and continued to work as a coach in Žďár nad Sázavou, Havlíčkův Brod and Pelhřimov. He is married and has two children, his son Jan married Marketa Čajková, daughter of the tragically deceased hockey player Luděk Čajka.
