Antonín Hájek (; 12 February 1987 – September 2022) was a Czech ski jumper. His specialties included both individual ski jumping and ski flying. Hájek's best result in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

was a fourth place in

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and

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2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. He held the Czech ski jumping distance record at 236 meters.

Life and career

Hájek had an accident in

Oberstdorf Oberstdorf (Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Oberschdorf'') is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality and skiing and hiking town in Germany, located in the Allgäu region of the Bavarian Alps. It is the southernmost settlement in German ...

in 2005, crashing in the trial round; he did not suffer major injuries and walked from the hill by himself. Hájek was involved in a car accident during the spring of 2008, and barely survived. Four months after the accident he could not walk, ruling out a comeback. But he began to train again in February 2009, and made great progress during the summer of 2009. He staged his comeback in Continental Cup in

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in December 2009. His first World Cup competition after his comeback was in

on 9 January 2010, and his fourth place score on that day was his best World Cup result. Hájek jumped 236 m at

Planica Planica () is an Alpine valley in northwestern Slovenia, extending south from the border village of Rateče, not far from another well-known ski resort, Kranjska Gora. Further south, the valley extends into the Tamar Valley, a popular hikin ...

on 20 March 2010 at the ski flying World Championships; this was the third longest jump in ski jumping history at the time. It set the Czech distance record. Hájek's results from the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

were seventh in both the individual and team large hill events, and 21st in the individual normal hill event. His best finish at the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is a biennial Nordic skiing event organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). The World Championships was started in 1925 for men and opened for women's participation in 1954. World Championship eve ...

was ninth in the team large hill event at

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. At the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

, he placed 28th individually. Hájek retired in September 2015, reportedly after being expelled from the national team.

Disappearance and death

On 10 March 2023, the Czech Ski Association announced that Hájek had been found dead in Malaysia. It was subsequently confirmed that he went missing in

Langkawi Langkawi, officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah (), is a duty-free island and an archipelago of 99 islands (plus five small islands visible only at low tide in the Strait of Malacca) located some 30 km off the coast of northwe ...

, and died in September 2022, at the age of 35.

References

External links

*
Photo of Hajek's crash
1987 births 2022 deaths Czech male ski jumpers Olympic ski jumpers for the Czech Republic People from Frýdlant Ski jumpers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Skiers from the Liberec Region Formerly missing people Missing person cases in Malaysia 21st-century Czech sportsmen {{CzechRepublic-skijumping-bio-stub