Shot putter Helena Fibingerová was among the Czechoslovakian representatives who won medals at the first World Athletics Championships. Exactly 40 years ago, on August 12, 1983, she won gold with a throw of 21.05 meters. It was the biggest success of his career, which was also accompanied by controversy.
40 years ago, in rainy Helsinki, she scored in a wet circle on her final attempt in the competition, and many fans still remember her celebratory run around the stadium.
The gold medal at the 1983 World Championships is Fibinger’s greatest achievement, his best medal at the Olympics being bronze in Montreal in 1976.
A last-minute injury ruled her out of the Moscow Games four years later and, at the peak of her form in 1984, she missed competing in Los Angeles due to an Eastern Bloc boycott of the Games. .
At the European Championships, the native of Víceměřice in Prostějovsk won two silvers and one bronze, she also has eight European indoor champion titles (and three silvers) to her name.
She even won the national championship twenty-nine times. She set 25 Czech records and three world records, the indoor one – 22.5 meters dating from February 1977 – is still valid today.
Fibingerová was born on July 13, 1949. After graduating, she moved to Ostrava, where she met coach Jaroslav Šmíd at the Vítkovice athletics club, whom she married in 1978.
Fibingerová represented for the first time at the age of 18 in 1967 and was active until the late 80s. She won the last silver medal at the national championship in 1988. However, already at the National Championships In Europe indoors in 1985, the cloud of doping was lifted over her after a positive test for testosterone.
However, Fibingerová denied any use of doping and documented a medical examination that should have revealed a benign testosterone-producing tumor. The matter was not processed further.
“Today’s bowlers look good, but they throw accordingly. I did five squats with 250 kilos and I bench-pressed 175 kilos. Athletics gave me strength “, later said the athlete, who always denied consuming illegal substances during training. career.
Fibingerová ended her career at the age of 40, then changed her appearance and became a manager and entrepreneur.
She and her husband run a bakery in Uherské Ostroh. Since 2001, Fibingerová has served for ten years on the board of directors of Czech Television. Today she is the director of the marketing company Česká atletika. In 2015, she received a medal of merit from President Miloš Zeman.
In addition to Fibingerová, runner Jarmila Kratochvílová even won two gold medals at the World Championships in Helsinki over 400 and 800 meters, and discus thrower Imrich Bugár also won the most precious metal.
At this time, the Czechoslovaks also won three silver and two bronze medals, in total the Czechoslovak expedition ranked fourth behind the GDR, the USA and the USSR.
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