The story of Milan Fišera: The head of controls at Jizerská 50

He was the head of controls at Jizerská 50 for 33 years. Obviously, he has so many memories for the race. Today, he's only following the race from the distance. He received his award for the dedication to Jizerská 50 in 2019.

In the very beginnings, it was mostly about improvising, but by the time we improved. Alpha and omega for the race controls were mobile phones. It was extremely important for communication with distant controls, however, not all of them were equipped by one," remembers his beginning at the famous race.

He was in charge of reporting about the leader and what was his number. That wasn't easy at all. "Usually it was the mountain rescue service who had the information first, because of the better network of radio communication they had."

He saw thousands of participants, however, he has no one special in mind. "I was usually too busy to perceive special competitors. Of course, I remember 5-time champion, Beran. I got more memories of participants from times I wasn't serving as the head of controls, but when I went to see Jizerská 50 as a spectator," says Fišera with a sense of nostalgia.

How did he get to Jizerská 50? "Originally, I worked in a Tesla factory, where I got fired so I found a place in a Public transport company. I was a member of the sauna club at the same time, which was founded in 1968 and I did quite a lot of cross-country skiing. We had this group and Karel Trousínek, the founder of the Jizerská 50 was there as well. He asked me if I could help him with the race - with either transportation or controls. I refused to be the head of transportation because I had been working at my position for just about a half a year and I didn't know much about it."

He is still meeting up with some of his colleagues, even though his team wasn't stable at all. "Some organizational groups still stick together, but I only had pairs or groups of four sending to the posts. But I admired them so much. No matter the weather, they did a great job every time."

He's not working at Jizerská 50 anymore, but the race is still in his heart. Even though his infirm health, he still follows the race. "I can't walk very well anymore, so I at least watch it on the TV. Before I got crutches, I was present at the stadium regularly." When was the best atmosphere at the Jizerská 50? "It still has a great atmosphere, but for me, the best atmosphere was when I was in the middle of the action. I had great colleagues without whom I wouldn't be able to do my job. We were looking for handy staff in factories, through our families, but especially in the sauna club."