“We would like to get competitive again!”

It was undoubtedly a bad season for the Czech team, so a lot of time was devoted to analysis and discussion. Sports Director and former athlete Tomas Slavik on what novelties are waiting for the Czech team this season.

What were the main reasons that the Czech athletes, including Tomas Portyk, did not find their best shapes last season?

Tomas Slavik: Last year, the coaches tried to give the young athletes more training in order to improve the basic fitness and endurance foundation for the coming years. And a notable improvement has been seen on the cross-country side. Unfortunately, this hard training impeded the jumping level, even though everything was fine at the first few World Cup events.

In the last years, the best athletes of the sport have increased their focus on the jumping side of things, training has come close to what ski jumpers do. Given that there is not a single jumping hill open in the Czech Republic in wintertime, the athletes had to commute to the nearest open hills, which increased their fatigue from the already difficult World Cup season. The other athletes can just train at home between events, while we literally had to sit on our hands.

How did you deal with this difficult season with the team?

Slavik: Shortly after the end of the season, we had two open debates with the coaches and the athletes. The goal was to get everything off everyone’s chest and name what failed last winter and what caused the drop of performance on the jumping hill.

In addition, the different coaching staff was interviewed by head coach Marek Sablatura to clarify future cooperation structures. Of course we would like to find a recipe that allows the athletes to be competitive again.

And did you find it?

Slavik: I feel good about the end result of this process. The discussion was often critical but I have to highlight the sincere efforts that were taken to rectify the situation. We have agreed that a general change in the attitude towards the athletes is necessary. It is not true that they weren’t doing what they were supposed to do in training but if they want to go all the way to the top level of this sport, they have to understand that it is hard and often hurts. At the same time, they have to realise that preparation and training are not for free and cost a lot. Therefore, we will need some kind of financial participation from them as well.

How will this work in detail?

Slavik: There will not be any fixed amounts, they will simply have to contribute to the costs for training. In doing so, they contribute to the financial security of the project and at the same time, they will have a co-responsibility for the quality of training and the results. They will be provided a portion of the advertising space on the team clothes to compensate for their assistance with the training costs, which they can offer to their sponsors. In most other ski disciplines, this practice is already working well.

Have there been any changes in the team?

Slavik: No. Marek Sablatura remains head coach with Vladimir Smid as assistant coach. Although everything was far from ideal in the last season, they have got our confidence. Our team consists of Lukas Danek, Ondrej Pazout, Tomas Portyk, Jan Vytrval and David Zemek.

Miroslav Dvorak ended his active career this spring. He had been troubled by frequent health problems and wasn’t able to get back in shape for the World Championships in Seefeld, so he decided to call it quits. We said goodbye and thanked him for his long-time representation of the Czech team.

How will the training be different going into the next season?

Slavik: The training blocks will be shorter this time. We want to limit travel as much as possible, so the athletes will stay in Czech Republic to train. They will go abroad for a shorter camp which will interchange with jumping at Jested in Liberec. The management team will visit some of the camps to check the quality of training, how this new cooperation works and to get feedback from everyone involved.

What will be the main goal for the Czech team in the coming season?

Slavik: The athletes will start in the Summer Grand Prix at the beginning of September but will not take part in all events. After that they will prepare for first snow and in November for the World Cup. In the upcoming season, we don’t have as many starting quotas as in the past anymore, when up to five athletes were able to start. We are down to two at the moment, which means that the rest of the team has to start in Continental Cup and score as many points as possible to increase the number of starting spots.

Source: CzechSki