Martina Sáblíková
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Martina Sáblíková () (born 27 May 1987) is a Czech
speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...
, specializing in
long track speed skating   Long-track speed skating, usually simply referred to as speed skating, is the Olympic discipline of speed skating where competitors are timed while crossing a set distance. It is also a sport for leisure. Sports such as ice skating marathon, ...
. She is an Olympic gold medal winner and a multiple
European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
and World allround champion. She became the first Czech to win two Olympic gold medals at one Winter Games in 2010. Sáblíková also competes in
inline speed skating Inline speed skating is the roller sport of racing on inline skates. The sport may also be called ''inline racing'' by participants. Although it primarily evolved from racing on traditional roller skates, the sport is similar enough to ice spee ...
and
road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes Recreational cycling, recreational, Road bicycle racing, racing, Bicycle commuting, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, ...
races as a part of her summer preparation for the skating season. In cycling, she focuses on individual time trial discipline in which Sáblíková holds multiple Czech Republic National Championships titles and belongs to the world's top 15 female time-trialists. Sáblíková is the elder sister of fellow speedskater
Milan Sáblík Milan Sáblík (; 14 March 1991 in Nové Město na Moravě) is a Czech former speedskater and the younger brother of Martina Sáblíková, the 2007 European Champion and double World Single Distances Champion. Martina Sáblíková and Milan Sáb ...
.


Career

As a junior, Sáblíková already achieved some notable results during international tournaments. In 2005, she came seventh in the 5000 m during the
World Single Distance Championships The World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships are a series of speed skating competitions organised by the International Skating Union. History Since the late 19th century, speed skating championships were always decided by racing multiple ...
. On 18 November 2005, she skated the 3000 m junior world record 4:00.69 in
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
. She was the Czech youth champion in 1999, 2001, and 2004. In the 2006 European allround championships in
Hamar Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...
, she finished fourth overall, placing third at the 3000 m and winning the 5000 m. In the 5000 m, she surprisingly beat favorite Claudia Pechstein. At the
2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...
in
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, she finished fourth in the 5000 m behind
Clara Hughes Clara Hughes, (born September 27, 1972) is a Canadian cyclist and speed skater who has won multiple Olympic medals in both sports. Hughes won two bronze in the 1996 Summer Olympics and four medals (one gold, one silver, two bronze) over the co ...
, Pechstein, and Cindy Klassen. During her race against Klassen, she was more than three seconds faster in the last round but eventually missed the bronze medal by a second. Because of Sáblíková's results, her position on the all-time world ranking, the Adelskalender, increased from 94th to 15th place within a year. In March 2006, she skated a
world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
at the 10,000 m, beating Hughes's best time by more than 11 seconds.


European champion

The following year she won her first major tournament, the
2007 European Speed Skating Championships The 2007 European Speed Skating Championships were held on the outdoor artificial ice track Arena Ritten in Collalbo, Italy. The Championships were three-day allround events, with the skaters completing four distances before the final championshi ...
in
Collalbo Ritten (; it, Renon ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy. Territory The community is named after the high plateau, elevation , the Ritten or the Renon, on which most of the villages are located. The plateau forms t ...
, with an outdoor world record
samalog Samalog (or samalogue in UK spelling; sometimes sammenlagt in both Norwegian and Danish: "put together", "total sum") is a scoring system in speed skating. It is used in allround tournaments to convert results at various distances into points in o ...
score of 162.954 points. She won both the 3000 m and the 5000 m in outdoor world record times. She did not perform as well at the World allround championships in
Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...
, where she finished fifth, but she managed to win the 3000 and 5000 m events at the 2006–07 Speed Skating World Cup. At the end of the season, she won two gold medals at the
2007 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships The 2007 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships were held between March 8 and March 11, 2007, in the Utah Olympic Oval. Twelve events were held, and world records were broken in five events. Schedule Medal summary Men's events Wome ...
in
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
in the 3000 m and 5000 m events. At those Championships, she set a new world record of 6:45.61 in the 5000 m event, 1.3 seconds faster than the previous record of Claudia Pechstein. On 15 March 2007, Sáblíková became the first female speed skater to skate a 10,000 m below 14 minutes when she went 13:48.33 in
Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
. She improved her one-year-old world record by almost 20 seconds, which would have belonged to the top 100 men of all time. In December 2007, she took 18th place in the poll European Sportsperson of the Year of the
Polish Press Agency The Polish Press Agency ( pl, Polska Agencja Prasowa, PAP) is Poland's national news agency, producing and distributing political, economic, social, and cultural news as well as events information. The agency has 14 news desks in its headquarters ...
. She also won the title of the Sportsperson of the Year of the Czech Republic twice – in 2007 and 2009. One week before the start of the 2007–08 World Cup season, Sáblíková fell during her training, and fractured her
humerus The humerus (; ) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of a roun ...
and stretched
ligament A ligament is the fibrous connective tissue that connects bones to other bones. It is also known as ''articular ligament'', ''articular larua'', ''fibrous ligament'', or ''true ligament''. Other ligaments in the body include the: * Peritoneal li ...
s. Although the injury limited her training in the beginning, she had an excellent season, and finally got the title with 6 out of 7 world cup wins (including the final) at the 3000 m and 5000 m distances. She also finished 9th at the 1500 m. On 13 January, she took bronze at the 2008 European allround championships in
Kolomna Kolomna ( rus, Колóмна, p=kɐˈlomnə) is a historical types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, situated at the confluence of the Moskva River, Moskva and Oka Rivers, (by rail) southeast of Moscow. Populati ...
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. On 12 January, the first day of the event, she improved her personal best at the 500 m distance, her weakest distance, with a time of 40.58 seconds. However, it was still too slow to compete with the best skaters. She finished 3rd despite winning the 3000 m and 5000 m distances. On 10 February she finished 5th at the World Allround Championships in
Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...
, again winning the 5000 m, but with a poor 500 m result. On 9 March 2008, she won gold at the 5000 m at the World Single Distance Championships in
Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...
,
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. However, she was very disappointed with her 3000 m performance two days before, when she finished 4th. On 11 January 2009 she repeated her previous bronze performance at the European allround championships despite her traditionally weak performance at the 500 m and surprising 4th place at the 3000 m. However, on 8 February she took gold at the World allround championships in Hamar after setting a new Czech national record in the 500 m at 40.28 seconds and winning the 3000 m and 5000 m distances. It was the first world allround medal in her career. On 1 February 2009, Sáblíková and her fellow Czech competitors Andrea Jirků and
Karolína Erbanová Karolína Erbanová (; born 27 October 1992) is a Czech ice hockey player and retired long-track speed skater. She won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the 500 m event in speed skating. She is a member of the Czech national ic ...
won the team pursuit competition at the World Cup Final in Erfurt, setting new Czech national record of 3:05.32. After the leading Dutch team did not finish the race, they also won the whole 2008/2009 World Cup.


Olympic champion

At the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010, Sáblíková won three medals, two golds (3000 and 5000 metres), and one bronze (1500 metres). She thus became the first Czech to win two gold medals in the same Winter Olympic Games. At the
2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...
in
Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...
, Sáblíková successfully defended her title in the 5000 meter, while also winning a silver medal in the 3000 meter. At the
2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...
in
Pyeongchang County Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...
, she won silver in the 5000 m behind
Esmee Visser Esmee Michelle Visser (; born 26 January 1996) is a Dutch speed skater and Olympic Champion, who specialises in long distances. Born in Leiden, she qualified for the 5000 metres at the 2018 Winter Olympics in December 2017. At the 2018 European ...
. Sáblíková also won a bronze medal in the 5000m at the
2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...
in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. Martina Sáblíková and Milan Sáblík are a rare example of sister and brother both holding world records in the same sport at the same time; Martina holds the (senior) world records in the 5000 m and 10,000 m events (both from March 2007) and in the 3000 m event (from March 2019), while Milan shared the junior world record for the team pursuit with fellow Czech junior skaters Pavel Kulma and Zdeněk Haselberger (from November 2007 till March 2010). Sáblíková has been successful despite there being no
speed skating rink A speed skating rink (or speed skating oval) is an ice rink in which a speed skating competition is held. The rink A standard long track speed skating track is, according to the regulations of the International Skating Union (ISU), a double-laned t ...
s in the Czech Republic. Because of this, Sáblíková's coach Petr Novák had to devise several unorthodox but successful training methods.


Rio 2016 qualification controversy

As an international caliber cyclist, Sáblíková has long harboured the dream of competing in the Olympic time trial event at the
2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
in Rio de Janeiro. After finishing 12th in 2015 in the women's time trial at the UCI World Road Championships in
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...
, U.S. (9th in the reduced rankings), Sáblíková was thought to have secured a place at Rio 2016. However, when the UCI published the list of nations that qualified for this event at Rio 2016, the Czech Republic was not among them. The UCI used an interpretation of the qualification rules where an athlete also has to qualify for the road race. She traveled to Rio, hoping the decision might be overturned but did not compete.


Records


Personal records

*=not an official distance for women, so no official World record.
Source: SpeedskatingResults.com She is currently in 4th position in the adelskalender.


World records

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com


In-line skating and cycling

Sáblíková also competed in several
inline speed skating Inline speed skating is the roller sport of racing on inline skates. The sport may also be called ''inline racing'' by participants. Although it primarily evolved from racing on traditional roller skates, the sport is similar enough to ice spee ...
and
cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...
races as a part of her summer preparation for the skating season. In 2004, she finished 16th at the Junior Inline Speed Skating World Championships on the 20 km distance in
Sulmona Sulmona ( nap, label= Abruzzese, Sulmóne; la, Sulmo; grc, Σουλμῶν, Soulmôn) is a city and ''comune'' of the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy. It is located in the Valle Peligna, a plain once occupied by a lake that disappeared in ...
. In 2006, she won the marathon (42.2 km) at the Czech Inline Speed Skating Championships in
Plzeň Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...
and in 2007 the half marathon (21.6 km) in
Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...
. In 2007, she also took bronze in
individual time trial An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' "stopwatch stage"). There are also track-b ...
on the 24 km distance at the European U23-Junior Road Cycling Championships in
Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
and another bronze on the 18 km distance at the Czech Road Cycling Championships in
Žďár nad Sázavou Žďár nad Sázavou (; german: Saar) is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. It is situated on a major rail link between Prague and Brno. The town both industrial and tourist centre. It is known ...
. In 2010, she took gold at the Czech Road and Time Trial National Championship. (Czech)


References


External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sablikova, Martina 1987 births Living people Czech female cyclists Czech female speed skaters Olympic speed skaters of the Czech Republic Olympic medalists in speed skating Olympic gold medalists for the Czech Republic Olympic silver medalists for the Czech Republic Olympic bronze medalists for the Czech Republic Speed skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2010 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2014 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2018 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2022 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics Sports world record holders Universiade medalists in speed skating World Allround Speed Skating Championships medalists World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships medalists People from Nové Město na Moravě Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) Universiade gold medalists for the Czech Republic Competitors at the 2013 Winter Universiade Sportspeople from the Vysočina Region