Any sports fan who does not remember her performance at the Rio Games will at least remember the Czech version of the Coast Guard, which was successfully performed by Czech swimmers at the time. “It was fun and it got us into the audience’s consciousness,” he recalls of the much-watched clip.
At the next Olympics, she already reminded the world not only of her athletic figure and wide smile. Petra Škábová’s protégé finished sixth in the 200m breaststroke in Tokyo, when for 21 long years no Czech swimmer had been in the Olympic final before her.
The transformation of the youth star into an adult ace seemed to be smoothly managed, despite many pitfalls. “People are used to you carrying finals and medals and suddenly nothing among the adults. The pressure from the environment is demanding, and of course also the pressure you create on yourself,” he describes. “And the older you get, the more you have to invest in yourself,” he says.
She did that too, but a dark period came. No sooner had she recovered from one problem than another came. Fainting and a broken rib, Lyme disease… Current coach Luka Gabrilo said about her that he found her as a broken girl the summer before last. And Seeman does not contradict this characterization.
“Mentally and athletically. I was still looking forward to being able to train without pain and limitations. But I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she admits. Until thoughts of ending her swimming career crept into her head at the age of just 22.
Photo: Jan Handrejch, Sport.cz
Swimmer Barbora Seemanová in the Mixzóna podcast studio.
“When you start training and find out after a week that you can’t do it to your full potential again, it occurs to you. It’s the easiest option for many people,” he admits. But the easiest path stood in her way. “I still wanted to do swimming,” she recalls.
She just needed a new impulse, which she found far from her native Prague. Knowing that he doesn’t look at her very often. “Now I calculated that I would spend over three quarters of a year abroad. So I’m in contact with my family via phone or FaceTime,” explains the member of the international group led by Swiss coach Luka Gabril.
Their base is in Linz, Austria, then they alternate between Thailand and Tenerife, in short, places that, due to their climate and background, are suitable for preparing for top events. “The biggest difference was how much time I spent traveling between the pool, home and the gym, which in Prague often took two hours a day,” he recounts.
Now he has everything in order. In Linc, the pool is two minutes away from the room. “There are also two gyms, so it won’t happen that there isn’t enough space,” he says, praising the excellent facilities.
“In the Czech Republic, I also have the best conditions we can have in the Victoria center, but here there is a problem with the pool and renting the lanes, because it is extremely expensive for a fifty-meter pool,” he describes. And of course, this is a significant obstacle for swimmers.
In addition to hours in the pool, gym or regeneration, in order to keep her previously fragile health under control, she also spends a lot of time in front of screens. They examine the swimming style with the coach from all sides, even from drones above the water.
“That’s probably the biggest change that’s happened to me, being able to focus on every shot in the water by how we break it down on camera. You see the mistake and how many times you don’t want to admit that you’re really making it,” he describes.
The preparation in the international group has so far graduated to fourth place at the World Championships in Doha in February, just 13 hundredths away from a medal. No Czech swimmer has been that high for over twenty years. But joint work is primarily aimed at the summer peak at the Paris Olympics.
In Mixzón, Seemanová also talks about how many swimsuits she has at home, why she used to cheer on Slavist Tribuna Sever and why knitting a sweater on the beach is her favorite way to relax.
Stories, observations and experiences of personalities from the endless world of sports.
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