Last ride, then the end. Hradilek says goodbye to professional sports

“I had ambitions to fight for the national team this year, I felt good, but two weeks ago I started to feel weakness in my left hand, it was not working well and it was confirmed that it was related to my cervical spine, which I have been struggling with for a long time. It wasn’t even the results, but rather the feeling of riding that made me decide to quit,” he announced.

It was he who started the golden era of Czech kayaking, before Jiří Prskavec and Vít Přindiš followed him. He used his strong arms and feeling for the water from his junior years, and at the age of twenty he sensationally won the World Cup race in his hometown of Troy.

In a dramatic domestic nomination, he won the start at the Beijing Games, but the first race of his life came four years later. In London, he performed a great final ride, only the Italian Daniele Molmenti was faster. “Everyone told me it would be gold, but I’m definitely not disappointed with silver,” he assured.

He added a second memorable race a year later. In Troy, his world gold was wildly celebrated by packed stands. “Unbelievable, amazing,” he cheered on a memorable afternoon when his triumph was confirmed by the silver Splatter.

When in 2017 in Pau, France, there was a fight for the world gold in kayak cross for the first time, it was Hradilek who did the best in the new Olympic discipline.

In recent years, he has had a hard time finding his way into the national team amid the intense domestic competition. Last weekend, he didn’t even do well in the initial nomination races in Veltrusy, where he finished last in the final on Saturday, and was third in final B on Sunday. He no longer had a real chance for the national team.

But Hradilk’s life was never just wild water. He loves adventure, as much as he enjoyed riding between wickets, he enjoyed going down even wilder rivers around the world. During his career, he jumped back to film, directly to the main role in the film Once Upon a Time in Paradise about the mountaineer Josef Smítek.

Last fall, he tried out his dancing shoes in the StarDance competition and made it to the final three. He has daughters Sára and Kayla with his wife Lucia.