Jan Korejs (27 April 1907 – 8 August 1949) was a Czech

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

. He competed in the men's pole vault at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

Life

Jan Korejs was born in Žebětín. He started athletics in the mid 1920s in athletic club Sokol Žebětín. Since 1926 he was a member of Moravská Slavia Brno. Before World War II he was the best Czechoslovak pole vaulter. He set the Czechoslovak record three times, and was the first Czechoslovak to vault over 400 cm. In 1929 and 1930 he became the national champion. Korejs competed at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where he finished in 6th place. In 1932 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) ( cs, Masarykova univerzita; la, Universitas Masarykiana Brunensis) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno as the seco ...

and started to work as a lawyer. After 1948 coup d'état he was involved in smuggling Czechoslovak citizens across the border to Austria. He was arrested on 6 August 1949 and died two days later under unclear circumstances. The official cause of his death that was given by the police was suicide by hanging. He was buried under a fictitious name in Brno cemetery. His family was only informed of his arrest and death 2 weeks later. In 1994 he was fully rehabilitated by Czech justice system. The Czech police opened investigation into his death in 2011 with inconclusive results.

References

1907 births 1949 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Czech male pole vaulters Olympic athletes for Czechoslovakia Sportspeople from Brno {{CzechRepublic-athletics-bio-stub