24.9.2019

Story of Ivana Vojěchová: Victory after 30 years

Ivana Vojtěchová was born in 1948. Her first race of Jizerska 50, was in 1970, where in 30km race, she won with the time 2:44:00. Regarding to the fact, that in that year only men appeared in the results list, her victory was postponed for a long 31 years. She got her victory assigned thanks to the film record.

There were exactly four months until the tragedy below Huascarán, Peru. It was the year 1970, and in the Jizera Mountains the final details were being refined before the third year. Karel Trousílek was again in charge of managing the plant, and Gustav Ginzel remained the boss of the route like in the previous two years. He was a distinguished traveller, who lived with his cat named Erich in a popular log cabin called Hnojový dům on the Jizera. He was a nerd with a kind heart, who allowed more or less anyone who asked for it to sleep under his roof.

However, at that time he no longer had to use his own ski slopes, as he had to do so only during the première year. The Jizera Mountains had twenty centimetres of snow not long before the start, and the smoothness was facilitated by a temperature of 8 degrees below zero, which kept the track nice and stable. In the euphoria that ensued, and later perhaps even in the partial chaos, however, women were somewhat forgotten. What forgot them was the snowy weather, which directly seemed to make them invisible.

 To put it simply, the women were not among any of the winners. Although there were several of them among the 245 competitors who started, no trace of them remained.

In the final list, there were only men, and that was it! The most famous of them, Tomáš Sýkora, did better in second place compared to the previous year’s event and became the new holder of the track record.

The brave woman skiers got the chance to compete after a seemingly endless eleven years!

 The organisers were brought to light by the incomprehensible mistake by the amateur film shot by mountain climber Karel Trost from Oldřichův v Hájích. His somewhat tumultuous film shot on a classic “eight” absolutely convincingly confirmed that the competitor wearing number 162 was the first to cross the finish line...

And who was it?

 The effort to identify the fastest women resembled a mystery with Sherlock Holmes, although it eventually was successful. The winner was Ivana Červenková, married with the name Vojtěchová. It was only later in 2001 that Eva Novotná identified her colleague from the ski club of TJ Ještěd Liberec. The rediscovered Ivana Vojtěchová had reportedly drawn to the organisers’ attention many times the list of results was not complete, but her effort was in vain. The tables finally turned after three years.

An archived photograph also played its role in helping to clear up the situation. “The photo clearly confirms that Věra Preislerová, later Týfova, was behind me, and my sister Běla Podrábská was in third place,” explained the winner, relieved that her victory had finally come to light.

A month later, the elusive list from the women’s category was finally found. The search for it had been launched at the time by the newspaper Liberecký den, and victorious skier Věra Preislerová eventually discovered it.

Yes, the Cherchez la femme sometimes applied in the Jizera fifty...

Look for a woman behind everything.

 The story is from the book “Jizerská 50: Závod plný příběhů”, which you can purchase at Albatros Media.