Jan Brzák – Felix: The legend that won the Olympics
Brzák was born into a family carpenters Gottlieb Brzák and his wife Josefa as the third of four sons. It was close to the water environment from an early age. “My father was the first tenant of the submarine workshops at today’s Jirásek Bridge,” says Bohuslav Karlík in the biographical book A Quarter of a Century at the Head of the Boatmen. In John, his father saw a consistent successor to the craft. But as usual, man means life changes.
Water element
A daily stay on the banks of the Vltava has done its practically all Brzákovice boys succumbed to the water element. The eldest Bohumil built his own kayak in 1924 and started racing. With the first wins in the races on the Vltava, the admiration of his younger brothers increased, who immediately wanted to show off.
Jan joined the water scouts, where he received his lifelong nickname – Felix. “At that time, cartoon grotesques with the cat Felix were in vogue. Once Felix came to the ward with a cat’s badge on his cap, so they immediately started calling him Felix and his younger brother Felíček, “says Karlík.
At home on the Vltava
Future Olympic winner he got used to the Prague Vltava very quickly. He sailed around Střelecký Island, often on dvojkánoi. It soon became his royal discipline. In 1929, at the age of seventeen, he took part in the race from Císařská louka to Malá Chuchla, and was not very mature due to the age of the years. Nevertheless, he won the ten-kilometer race with his colleague! And so he could prepare for the World Cup.
“The preparation for the championship consisted of daily training on the lower water at Střelecký ostrov and twice a week dozens of upper water training took place,” Karlík mentions the training that “Felix” Brzák pushed up to. Olympic laurels. He soon knew Vltava as his own shoes. Few people knew Prague from the surface of the Vltava like Jan Brzák.
In 1933, the first European Canoeing Championships took place in Prague. The favorites, of course, were Brzák and his then colleague Syrovátek. They didn’t win. But they had stepped on higher goals.
Golden laurels
Brzák was preparing for the Olympics with daily diligence and dexterity. The year 1936 was the first where speed canoes could compete. How did it end up? Brzák was just then 24 years. Nevertheless, he rolled with his colleague Vladimír Syrovátek (ꝉ65) gold medal. There would have been more if World War II had not come in his way.
He stayed his
Brzák was 24 years old at the time of his first Olympic success. Although it became practically overnight sports “celebrity”, not stuffed, quite the contrary. “Mom, I don’t want to brag, but I think I should take the gold to the pub tonight to show. They asked me about her,“He said the way home when he announced to the pub.
Uprising hero
Even during the occupation, “Felix”, who, among other things, completed compulsory military service, did so. He did not fare the occupation at all. Therefore, when the May Uprising broke out in 1945, it was Felix “From the first minute of the fight. He fought by the water on the embankment under the Palacky Bridgewhere he conquered the building of the new Ministry of Communications, “which was located in Smíchov.
Double gold medalist
Jan Brzák won two Olympics in the war years. The years 1940 and 1944. When it was possible to race again in 1948, it was not missing – strengthened by the struggle for freedom, mature years and experience. With his colleague Bohumil Kudrna then did not find competition. Four years later, they finished second.
The name of Jan Brzák – a scout, water sports promoter and, above all, one of the first ever Olympic medalists, will say something to few people today. As long as his health served him, he raced. He looked to the development of his successors. And he looked at them until the end of his days. The last one came on July 15, 1988.
Jan Brzák was the best canoeist of his time. He repeated the Olympics twice. He learned how to race on the Vltava in Prague.
Author: ČTK -Rostislav Novák