Miloslav Blažek (22 June 1922 – 19 February 1985) 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. He represented

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

at the

1952 Winter Olympics The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Oslo 1952, were a winter multi-sport event held from 14 to 25 February 1952 in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Discussions about Oslo hosting ...

Life

Blažek was born on 22 June 1922 in

Přívoz Přívoz (, briefly until 1920 and 1939-1945 also ''Oderfurt'') is a municipal part of the city of Ostrava, Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. It lies in the Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Repub ...

(today part of

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

). He died on 19 February 1985 in Ostrava.

Career

Active throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Blažek established himself as a key player for the Czech ice hockey club

HC Vítkovice HC, hc or H/C may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Medicine * Health Canada * Hemicrania continua * Hyperelastosis cutis or hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia Chemistry * Hemocyanin, a metalloprotein abbreviated Hc * ...

. His talents earned him a place on the national team, with which he competed in numerous international tournaments. Among his most notable appearances was at the

, where Blažek and his teammates faced some of the strongest hockey nations in the world. The Czechoslovak squad delivered an impressive performance, finishing 4th out of 16 participating teams and securing the second-highest total of medals across the competition. Overall, Blažek spent his playing career with Vítkovice from 1949 to 1960 and represented the national team between 1949 and 1952. He later returned to Vítkovice as a coach from 1965 to 1966. While with Vítkovice, he achieved significant success, earning a league gold medal in 1952, silver medals in 1950, 1951, and 1953, and a bronze medal in 1958. Although he stepped away from official league play in 1960, finishing with an impressive 127 goals in 180 league appearances, he remained active in coaching roles until 1975.

Political issues

Blažek was an outspoken critic of many of the

Soviet Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

's repressive policies and its control over

. Because of his candid views on the government and suspicions that he might defect, authorities imposed a travel ban on him from 1953 to 1957, which barred him from taking part in international competitions.

Legacy

A memorial dedicated to Blažek is displayed inside the city hall of his hometown, Ostrava.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blazek, Miloslav 1922 births 1985 deaths Czech ice hockey forwards Czechoslovak ice hockey forwards HC Vítkovice players Ice hockey people from Ostrava Ice hockey players at the 1952 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Czechoslovakia