Pavel Schenk

"We ignored them there if we could, because there were common rooms and dining rooms. And they continued there in such provocations that I went to the dining room, they had some of their famous athletes there, he approached me, he grabbed me by the shoulders and they had a photo reporter ready there, he took a picture of it and it was immediately put in the Russian press as a demonstration of our cooperation. "

"It is worth mentioning the preparations for the Olympics in Mexico. Otherwise, we had a very good cooperation with the national team of Japan, who were at our time playing prep matches. We played in České Budějovice and a friend came with a transistor on his ear at five in the morning: guys, I don't know what's going on, they're shooting here, it looks like we were occupied by the Russians. So it was a shock. The Japanese were shocked doubly that something could happen to them here. We were able to take them to Austria by bus from those houses where it was for a jump, they were very grateful for that, so we broke up with the fact that we would see. I went by train to Brno, our "liberators" drove me off the train 5 kilometers from Brno, I went on foot. I came to Brno, there were already removed signs with street names, signposts and pasted windows with inscriptions: Go home Ivan, Nataša are waiting for you. "

"My friend and I applied to the Královopolské strojírny club in Brno, where they welcomed us when they saw our mature figures. But then when they found out we were beginners, it somehow stopped interested them. So we took a rope, one ball, we went to the park in Lužánky, where there was a clay court, and there we swept over the rope. It was important for the rest of my life that Karel Láznička, a former long-time player - a representative and at the same time the coach of Zbrojovka Brno, a league team, walked by and gave us an offer that we could start training with him. While volleyball is common with children - perhaps as young as ten, I started playing volleyball in my eighteen years. "

"When we said goodbye at home, everyone thought: Defeat the Russians, you can lose to anyone, but you have to defeat Russians. And we lived here with that until the final match, which is a lot of stress. And even when we were leaving the accommodation, like on a bus, that we were going to the hall, we met our gymnasts. Věrka Čáslavská said: Guys, you have to beat them, we lost a hundredth of a point with them as a team of gymnasts. So another drop into our stress, into our stress. Well, it turned out that we lost quite clearly, because the performance was terrible. So when we returned, no praise went away for the medal. We were evaluated as disappointing. "