Augustin Bubník (21 November 1928 – 18 April 2017) was a Czech

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player for the

Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) ** Fourth Czechoslovak Repu ...

national team. He won a silver medal at the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (; ; ; ) and commonly known as St. Moritz 1948 (; ), were a winter multi-sport event held from 30 January to 8 February 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Games were the ...

. He also played in the 1947 and 1949 World Championships, of which Czechoslovakia won both. He later worked as an ice hockey coach and was elected as an MP to the lower chamber of the Czech Parliament from the Civic Democratic Party. He also worked as the ice hockey coach of the Finnish National Team from 1966 to 1969, and was later inducted into the

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame The Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is housed in and administered by the ('Finnish Ice Hockey Museum'), a part of the Vapriikki Museum Centre, in Tampere, Finland. The mission of the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is to record, document, and exhibit ...

Biography

Early life

Augustin Bubník was born on the 21 November 1928 in Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. He grew up in Prague and played hockey for the LTC Praha Sports club. In 1947, he became a member of the Czechoslovakia national hockey team. The team won silver at the 1948 Winter Olympics in Saint-Moritz, Switzerland. In 1949, the team became World Champions.

Life under Communism

After the Czechoslovak National Hockey Team won the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

in 1949, the following year they were forced to give up their spot in the championship. State Security arrested all of the hockey team members, including Bubník. A trial with fabricated charges was brought against the entire team in 1950. Bubník was convicted of "treason", "subversion of the state" and "espionage". He was then sentenced to fourteen years in prison. He served time in a variety of prisons and in the

uranium mines Uranium production is carried out in about 13 countries around the world, in 2017 producing a cumulative total of 59,462 tonnes of uranium (tU). The international producers were Kazakhstan (39%), Canada (22%), Australia (10%), Namibia (7.1%), Ni ...

in the Jáchymov district and Bytíz. President Zápotocký granted him amnesty and he was released in January 1955. Afterwards, the

Regime In politics, a regime (also spelled régime) is a system of government that determines access to public office, and the extent of power held by officials. The two broad categories of regimes are democratic and autocratic. A key similarity acros ...

only allowed him to play in the minor hockey leagues, so he turned to coaching. In the mid- to late-1960s, Bubník managed to move to Finland, where he coached the Finnish National Team. He also helped develop hockey in general in Finland as well. In 1968, Bubník was officially rehabilitated, and in 1989, he finally received full social recognition.

Death and legacy

In 2004, Bubník was inducted into the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame. In the early 2000s, he was interviewed by the non-profit Post Bellum for their Stories of the 20th Century Project. Bubník died on 18 April 2017, at the age of 88.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bubnik, Augustin 1928 births 2017 deaths Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) MPs Czech ice hockey coaches Czech ice hockey forwards Czech sportsperson-politicians Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Austria Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Finland Czechoslovak ice hockey coaches Czechoslovak ice hockey forwards Finland men's national ice hockey team coaches Ice hockey people from Prague Ice hockey players at the 1948 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1948 Winter Olympics Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (1998–2002) Olympic ice hockey players for Czechoslovakia Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for Czechoslovakia People convicted of treason against Czechoslovakia Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) Sportspeople convicted of crimes