Eliška Misáková travelled to the 1948 London Olympics as a member of the Czechoslovakian gymnastics team, which also included her older sister Miloslava Misáková. Upon arrival in Britain, Eliška was diagnosed with polio, and hospitalized. On the day that the women’s competition started, Eliška passed away. The rest of the team had vowed to win a gold medal for their ill teammate, and they succeeded. Due to the nature of her illness, Misáková had to be cremated in the UK and so the team returned home “with an urn and gold medal”, as substitute Věra Růžičková later recalled.