Alena Mejzlíková

"Still, it was a huge surprise in the hockey world that we beat India. The first minutes the news went out on the air, to the world: 'India : Czechoslovakia 2:1.' I found it exotic, I have some moments in front of my eyes, Indian women in blue jerseys and darker skirts, I can totally see it. It was a beautiful experience for us, then the game against the Austrians came when the cannonade came, we won 5-0. We were incredibly good shooters, especially Jiřka Čermáková, I think she scored three goals, Jířa Hájková. We were charged with the feeling of victory over India, that we can do it all. If we broke it down mentally, the match was very good for us, as if they were two teams of different categories. Jiřina was unbelievable. But then again, it put us in a state where we were told, or we did the math in our own heads, that if we beat Poland, we'd get medal. And suddenly it was as if we were gripped. Us and a medal at the Olympics? Now that flutters around the stomach, it looked like that against the Poles too. We always beat them, 3-0, 4-0, 5-1. We played more or less on one half of the field, we were unable to score, we had two penalties, Jira Kadlec, Jana Lahodova and nothing. One stick, the second penalty was caught by her. I don't know if we would have tied, if we would have been third, we didn't count that. The fact is, our heads were clouded. And when things didn't go our way, you got even more bogged down. Jana Lahodova scored the coveted goal from a penalty corner, I didn't even have the strength to cheer, just 'Yay!' I saw the footage and my son said: 'You weren't even happy.' I was happy, but it was such a release, it only dawned on us after the game, I sat with Ida and said: 'Damn it, we really won.' It was very difficult mentally, we didn't succeed at all there, and we have a medal. Jana was still subbing, thank God she came on the field. We were kind of useless. And then the announcement, the announcement. 'Huray, Huray!' That was nice then."

"Actually, that's where we started to meet more guys and girls from other sports. We're kind of a small sport, like Cinderella, we felt like we didn't belong in the huge world of sports, the ones that are in the limelight. Athletics, handball, volleyball, basketball, Kropilák was there and next to Kropilák was our little Jana Lahodová. We had such funny reactions. And Bugár, Kratochvílová, we looked at them like apparitions, we felt like Cinderellas, modest. They all treated us very normally, as if we were their equals. I felt that way, I don't know about the older players. I was twenty-two-something, and I was humble to the sporty Czech aces. We worked from morning till night, and I don't want to sound completely stupid, but Eva Maříková was on us like a dog. Firstly, in terms of physical preparation and discipline and such. In the morning, before breakfast, we would go out to the grounds and we would circle around for warm-ups. Eyes this small. Jesus, we didn't like those morning warm-ups, where we were pacing, and suddenly in Nymburk, on the second floor balcony, I don't know if it was the coach or the masseur came out on the balcony and said, 'Oh my God, it's such a beautiful day today,' and we're like, 'Oh, it sure is.' And we'd sneak in, crushed. It was a nice time, we were being looked after in a way we hadn't known before. The masseurs, the Jacuzzi, everything was available to us, such care all around. We felt like top athletes."

"We're such a teaching family, I realize that now. My brother also taught at the primary school in the village outside Trenčany. Now I don't know if it was after school or if he was still finishing his studies at the Faculty of Education, or whatever it was called at that time, but I know he was already teaching. And he was, now it's fitting that it's August 21 today, he was on a ski course with the school early in 1969 and then he stopped teaching. He was on the ski course, there was a skirmish because the Russian soldiers came there, they started to equip themselves with the girls, the children, especially the girls, to have fun with them and things like that. There was a scuffle with those soldiers, it turned out the way it did. The soldiers left and he taught there for a while and then they fired him. I guess that unfortunate year of 1968 left such an impact on him. I remember it as a little girl. I was ten years old when it was going on, I remember waking up that morning and the television was on, black and white of course. I thought it was strange, because there was no morning TV then. I woke up and suddenly there was television. And my parents crying, I mean, my mother crying. And I was watching it and my mother was saying, 'Oh my God, something terrible is happening, there's going to be a war. You go in the kitchen.' She didn't want me to be there, so they kind of kept me out of all that stuff. I felt that something was just different. I couldn't go out, run out into the street, to my friend's house where I used to go to play. 'Don't go anywhere, don't go anywhere to play!' The door was locked, the gate was closed, and there were tanks under the windows. I could see my mother crying all the time."