David Svoboda (; born 19 March 1985) is a Czech athlete who competes in the

modern pentathlon The modern pentathlon is an Olympic sport consisting of fencing (one-touch épée), freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country running. The event is inspired by the traditional pentathlon held during the anci ...

. At the 2012 London Olympics, Svoboda won the gold medal in the Olympic pentathlon. At the 2008 Olympics, Svoboda was 28th in the pentathlon. David is the twin brother of professional triathlete Tomáš Svoboda.

Working in the Czech Olympic Committee

Statement on the participation of Russian athletes at the 2024 Olympics

On March 29, 2023, he caused outrage and a media storm with his comments on Czech TV on the dispute over the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in connection with Russian aggression in Ukraine. He was invited to an interview on Studio ČT24 as the

Czech Olympic Committee The Czech Olympic Committee ( cs, Český olympijský výbor) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) representing the Czech Republic. History The Czech Olympic Committee is one of the oldest NOCs in the world, having been founded in 1899 as Bo ...

Sportsmen's Commission chairman. In his answers, he questioned

Russian war crimes in Ukraine Russian war crimes since 1991 are the violations of the law of war, including the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the Geneva Conventions, consisting of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide, which the Russian Armed ...

. Several personalities criticized his statements, for example,

Dominik Hašek Dominik Hašek (, ; born January 29, 1965) is a Czech former ice hockey goaltender who mostly played for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). Widely regarded as one of the best goaltenders of all time, Hašek also played for t ...

, who declared on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that Svoboda supported

Russian propaganda The propaganda of the Russian Federation promotes views, perceptions or agendas of the government of Russia. The media include state-run outlets and online technologies, and may involve using "Soviet-style 'active measures' as an element of m ...

and crimes, including the

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

of Ukrainian children, and must bear the consequences for this.

Vavřinec Hradilek Vavřinec Hradilek (; born 10 March 1987) is a Czech slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2003. Hradilek competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In the K1 event he finished seventh in the qualification ro ...

and

Lukáš Rohan Lukáš Rohan (; born 30 May 1995) is a Czech slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2010. He is from Mělník, Czech Republic but lives and trains in Prague. Lukáš now competes solely in the C1 discipline, however h ...

, members of the Czech Olympic Committee Sportsmen's Commission, distanced themselves from his opinions and declared that Svoboda's opinion is not the commission's. Journalist Jiří X. Doležal even commented that he should be stripped of his functions and uniform and tried for questioning genocide under Section 405 of the Czech Criminal Code.

Defense Minister A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

Jana Černochová Jana Černochová (born 26 October 1973) is a Czech politician, serving as Czech Minister of Defence in the Cabinet of Petr Fiala since December 2021. She has been a member of the Czech parliament since 2010, representing the Civic Democratic Pa ...

joined the criticism, distancing herself from Svoboda's statements on behalf of the entire defense department, inviting him to the interview and showing him 200 photos of killed

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

athletes. Svoboda apologized for his statements and publicly asked for forgiveness, for which he drew criticism from people who welcomed his original statement. He resigned from his position in the commission, saying that "the dual role of a soldier and a representative of athletes in the commission does not go together." The director of DUKLA Army Sports Center, Pavel Benc, announced that Svoboda would receive a written reprimand because he neglected the obligation of a professional soldier "to behave even outside of duty in such a way as not to endanger the seriousness and credibility of the armed forces."

References

External links

* * * 1985 births Living people Czech male modern pentathletes Olympic modern pentathletes for the Czech Republic Modern pentathletes at the 2008 Summer Olympics Modern pentathletes at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in modern pentathlon Olympic gold medalists for the Czech Republic Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics World Modern Pentathlon Championships medalists Sportspeople from Prague Czech twins Modern pentathletes at the 2016 Summer Olympics {{CzechRepublic-modern-pentathlon-bio-stub