Zdeněk Remsa

Zdeněk Remsa took up skiing at the age of five, but World War II meant that his international career would not take off until the late 1940s. His most notable appearance came at the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics, where he represented Czechoslovakia in the ski jumping tournament and placed 20th among 49 entrants. He also competed at the 1954 and 1958 World Championships, finishing 37th and 43rd respectively. He retired from active competition in 1960.

Remsa then gained far more notoriety as a coach who trained some of the top Czechoslovakian jumpers in the country’s history. Most notable among them was Jiří Raška, who took gold and silver in the normal and large hill events respectively at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics. Remsa did not stop coaching until 2012, when he was well into his 80s, and received the Olympic Order in Silver for his efforts in 1999.