Josef Horký (born February 3, 1972) is a Czech former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events. He is a two-time Olympian (1996 and 2004), a semifinalist in the 200 m butterfly at the
European Championships
The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...
(2002), and a member of Kometa Brno under his head coach Ondřej Butir.
Horky made his first Czech team at the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. On the first day of the Games, he managed to pull off a top 16 effort in the 400 m individual medley, edging out Australia's
Trent Steed
Trent Joseph Steed (born 6 May 1977) is a former medley swimmer who competed for Australia at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. There he finished in 15th position in the 400-metre individual medley, clocking a time of 4:29.35 in the B-Fi ...
to earn a fourteenth spot by almost a full second in 4:28.39. Out of his remaining tries, Horky was unable to target the same goal as his first event, finishing thirtieth in the 200 m butterfly (2:02.84), and eighteenth in the 200 m individual medley (2:05.45).
After an eight-year absence, Horky competed only in the men's 4×200 m freestyle relay, and served as a senior captain for the Czech swimming team at the
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
. Teaming with
Michal Rubáček
Michal Rubáček (born 19 December 1986) is a Czech swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He is a two-time Olympian, and a multiple-time Czech national record holder for the butterfly events (50, 100, and 200 m).
Rubacek made his first C ...
,
Květoslav Svoboda
Květoslav Svoboda () (born August 25, 1982 in Znojmo) is an Olympic freestyle swimmer from the Czech Republic. He swam for the Czech Republic at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics.Martin Škacha in heat two, Horky swam a third leg and recorded a split of 1:53.29, but the Czechs settled only for seventh place and thirteenth overall in a final time of 7:26.26.