A Czech-English high school student puts down his oars. The world champion goes to graduation

Rowing has always been one of the great (southern) Czech sports. Especially in Třebon. Among the most successful. You might remember the famous Třeboň four with a helmsman. The golden Olympic team that won the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki. Třeboň crew Karel Mejta, Jiří Havlis, Jan Jindra, Stanislav Lusk with helmsman Miroslav Koranda. 74 years ago they were the best on the planet. You probably know their story.

Václav Vochozka also won Olympic medals in his highly successful career. He was born on July 26, 1955, represented Czechoslovakia, and even won two bronze medals at the Olympics. In Montreal 1976 he went for bronze in the double sculls and in Moscow 1980 also for bronze in the double sculls. He has a silver and a bronze medal from the world rowing championships.

Not only did Ivo Bouchal build on these successes. Member of the Třeboň rowing club. He didn’t win directly on the water, but on the trainer. On a rowing machine. “I competed in the U21 category,” explains the successful student and athlete. “The course was a five-hundred-meter lightweight sprint,” he describes the race at the European and World Championships. He won two gold medals.

Now they put the rowing aside for the time being. For how long? Maybe forever. It practically does not reach the water at all. Reason? Study. Duties at the Czech-English grammar school in České Budějovice. “The student is conscientious, I would even say exemplary,” says chemistry teacher Květa Tůmová, who is happy about Ivo’s sporting achievements, but equally appreciates his academic results.

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It might seem that Bouchal’s plans are bold, strange. That he will now throw away what he carefully built in preparation for the World Cup. “But I will continue to do sports,” he answers immediately. “I will focus more on cycling,” surprised Ivo Bouchal. “I will go to the amateur league in South Bohemia.” Cyclists will thus welcome a great personality in the peloton. World rowing champion. By the way, Václav Chalupa presented medals to Buchal at the World Championships on the rowing simulator in Prague. Does the name mean something to you? Of course! Jihocech. A native of J. Hradec, a medalist from the Olympic Games in Barcelona! Few people know that Chalupa started on the roads of Jindřichohradek also on a bicycle… Ivo Bouchal now sits down over books that he would like to exchange for university scripts over time. “Now I’m going to prepare for my graduation, then for medical exams,” he explains, explaining why sports will not become a professional matter in his life. The South Bohemian Region does not have many world champions. Ivo Bouchal is one of them.

“I prepared several months in advance. The preparation was specialized specifically for this race. Friends, family, everyone helped me a lot in the preparation. My girlfriend was my support.” As can be seen from the medals won, the systematic work paid off. “I need a lot of explosiveness, so the preparation was divided into strength training, at the same time I rode explosive intervals and endurance on the rowing machine.” He interspersed rowing with running and cycling. Because he worked very hard, he is the best in the world in his category and discipline!

Conscientiousness is manifested in sports and studies. Hard rowing training helps to develop the already very strong will of the student. Lenka Maliariková from the Czech-English grammar school in České Budějovice perceives sports as part of the colorful life of students: “We support their sports. We try to find optimal options so that students can combine studies with sports.” Sport for Ivo Bouchal, world and European champion, will continue to be “just” entertainment. “It will be a great hobby for me. In the future, it may very well happen that you come to the doctor’s office as a patient and there you will be greeted by a doctor – a world champion in rowing.