František Douda

František Douda was one of five children of a farmer in a village in southern Bohemia. He began with athletics in the mid-1920s with self-study from books and homemade javelins and discs. In 1926 he competed with standard equipment for the first time and immediately broke the Czechoslovak junior record. Subsequently, he started training systematically and in May 1927 won five events (javelin, discus, shot put, long and high jump) in a high school meeting, a performance which attracted the attention of sports clubs in Praha, so after graduating from secondary school he moved there, working as a post office clerk.

At his first national senior championships, Douda exceeded 14 m with the shot and 44 m with the discus for the first time. During the next few years he set several Czechoslovak records. In 1931 during a meeting in Brno he became the first Czechoslovak to set a world record in athletics with 16.04 m in the shot put. He participated at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics in the shot and discus. Unfortunately, an old back injury reappeared when he made his second attempt at the Games in Los Angeles. In September 1932 he again set a world record with 16.20 in Praha. At the first European Athletics Championships in 1934 Douda won the only medal for Czechoslovakia, a bronze medal in the shot put. Later he studied electrical engineering and worked in the Ministry of Communications.

Personal Bests: SP – 16.20 (1932); DT – 46.30 (1932).