Jiří Kotrč

“Then there was the 1979 qualification for the Olympic Games in Moscow, Spain. We went there and a lot of guys were injured. We went there with the team and were not trusted much. In the end, we finished third and did not advance to Moscow, so unfortunately the first dream of the Olympics did not come true. We were quite disappointed. I remember in Spain, that was really something I had never experienced, what was happening there. They threw eggs at us, we were in Barcelona, and they played basketball there before us. They were cleaning it up, there was a terrible mess, we went to practice, there were plates, glass and cans on the ground. They were cleaning up everything there, we thought to ourselves, if it will be similar to basketball, then it will be fun. It was like that, there were four or five thousand people, I experienced it for the first time in my life. Then I already experienced it, but that was the beginning when we, as young guys, did not experience this. We were so called auf or surprised, blown away by that.”

"It is beautiful. That life in the Olympic village together with all the sport sorts. We looked at tennis, shooting, athletics and swimming, we were everywhere. We had one barrack available to the Czechoslovak expedition, where the tennis player Mečiř was; he actually won the Olympic gold. There were the shooters; they also achieved the gold medal, so I did not forget the medallists. We were in contact with everyone; in the village, we met the best athletes in the world, the Americans. I have photos with Sabatini, a tennis player who was in the limelight at the time, with Mečír with a gold medal. I have great memories. Although it was very closely guarded there. I had problems with my knee, I was with the therapist Mojžíšová, who was helping me fix it, and I didn't go to training. Kotrč was missing from training, they said. They counted it, a player is missing, namely Kotrč. And then I had to explain it. We didn't get much out of the village by ourselves, we had to walk together. We spent a fortnight there and had incredibly nice feelings. We also did well in the game; we finished third in the group. Had we not got a last second goal from the Koreans, we would have won the group and played for the medals. Unfortunately, it didn't work out, we ended up seventh. But seventh at the Olympics, it's a beautiful result."