Article by John Manenti
As long as it remained united, the Czechoslovakia only skipped the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles for the well-known “against boycott” imposed by Moscowwithout however obtaining great results despite the presence of not negligible delegations as regards the number of athletes registered for the Games, with Disciplines such as gymnastics – to which the “legendary” Vera Caslavska, winner of 7 of the 12 gold medals of her country – followed by Athletics where, conversely, of the 11 gold medals four are conquered by the same “legendary” Emil Zatopek, nel mentre in third place, in terms of overall laurels, is the Lotta with 15 medalsalbeit only one of precious metal …
And it is precisely the man capable of waving the flag of his country on the highest flagpole during the awards ceremony that we intend to deal with today, character capable of becoming an authentic symbol for this Discipline in the course of his careerin the context of which it addresses the so-called Greco-Roman specialty, which differs from freestyle wrestling in that, with respect to the latter, it is not possible to perform knockdown or overturning techniques that involve actions on the legs.
Born on 6 April 1948 in Krmelin, a town of just over 2,000 inhabitants located in Silesia, a few kilometers from the Polish border, Vitezslav Macha he develops a 1.72 m by 74 kilograms physique, ideal for returning to his Welterweight Category, even though at his Olympic debut, just 20 years old at the Mexico City Games, he competed in the lower Lightweight Category, being eliminated in fourth turn, defeated by the Soviet Gennady Sapunov …
The Czechoslovakian wrestler treasures this experience and, having accumulated those four extra kilos that project him among the welterweights, he makes the “general rehearsal” of what represents the pinnacle of his competitive activity when, at the end of April 1972 in Katowice, Poland, he took his first laurel, finishing third at the European Championships which crowned the Greek Petros Galaktopoulos as winneralready bronze at the 1970 and 1971 World Championships, who beat the Soviet Kasim Chailov in the Final.
This placement allows you to include 24-year-old Vitezslav in the lot of podium contenders at the next Munich Gameseven though the debut on 6 September 1972 on the platforms of the “Ringer-Judo Halle” of the Bavarian capital is not the most promising, as he is defeated on points by the Bulgarian Ivan Kolev, which leads him to already accumulate 3 penalty points in a Sport where you are eliminated once you reach the odds of 6…
In such a situation, for Macha the task is all too obvious, namely to win all subsequent matches if he wants to continue to cultivate medal ambitions, to which he gives credit already since second match in which he does not accumulate any other penalty as he defeats the Argentinian Nestor Gonzales by knockdown after 2’31”who thus abandons the competition, just as in the third round he ousts the Turkish Mehmet Turut from the Tournament, being declared the winner for technical superiority, which costs him only 0.5 penalty points.
With only 9 wrestlers left in contention out of the 20 originally entered, in the fourth day of competitions Macha has to contend with the French Daniel Robin – who four years earlier, in Mexico City, had won silver in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling – and who presented himself with just 2 penalty points, so that the victory on points awarded to the Czechoslovak allows him to overtake him (4.5 penalty points to 5), while the West German Werner Schroder and the Finnish Eero Tapio are eliminated, with the best still competing to be the fresh European Champion Galaktopouloswith only 3 penalties, which makes him exempt from the fifth round of matches …
At this point, Macha can “afford” a victory on points, which entails only one penalty point and this is what happens when facing the East German Klaus Pohl, meanwhile Kolev’s affirmation on Robin is worth little, if not to finish ahead of the transalpine having reached 6.5 penalty points which put him in fourth position, contrary to what happens for the Swede Jan Karlsson, whose victory on points over the Yugoslavian Momir Kecman guarantees him the bronzehaving finished the Tournament with 6 penalties.
Now sure of the silver medalMacha is left with the possibility of “big shot” if he manages to defeat the 27-year-old Athenian wrestler in the Final (where we start on equal terms …), already in his third Olympic experience, and the feat he succeeds by being declared the winner on points for what, to this day, still remains the only Olympic Gold Medal in Wrestling (both free and Greco-Roman) of a Czechoslovakian athlete, including subsequent appearances under the separate flags of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
For Macha it is only the beginning of an incredible series of affirmations and placements, as they certify the two consecutive silvers at the Continental Reviews in Helsinki 1973 and Madrid 1974 – where he surrenders in both cases only to Kolev, the great disappointment of Munich – and, above all, the world title conquered in mid-October 1974 at the World Championships in Katowice, beating the East German Klaus-Peter Goipfert in the Finalwhile the following year he is still on the European podium, bronze at the end of April 1975 in Ludwigshafen in the Tournament that crowns Karlsson Champion to then find himself unusually on the edge of the podium at the Mid-September World Championships in Minsk, where the 22-year-old Soviet prevails Anatoly Bykov…
With such a path in the post-Olympic four-year period, there can be no doubt that whoever wants to get on the top step of the podium at the 1976 Montreal Games will have to deal with the reigning Olympic championwhich makes its debut on July 20 on the platforms of the “Pierre Charbonneau Center” overcoming Gopfert through passivity, with the latter redeeming himself in the second round by overcoming Galaktopoulos on points, while Macha obtained the same result against the home favorite Brian Renken.
With still three athletes (Macha, Bykov and the Finnish Mikko Huhtala …) exempt from penalties, the Soviet is granted the direct passage to the fourth round, while the Greek silver from Munich leaves the scene, landed by the West German Karl-Heinz Helbingwith Scandinavian ed the Czechoslovakian to continue their journey accumulating only 0.5 penalty pointsgiven the respective statements on the points, but with a gap of more than 8 points, against the Cuban Idalberto Barban and the Bulgarian Yanko Shopov …
Back in competition. Bykov is awarded his first penalty point for the narrow success (7-6) on the Romanian Gheorghe Ciobotaru, who is consequently eliminated, like Karlsson who leaves the scene after being defeated (9-5) on points by Gopfert, while the most awaited match, which pits Huhtata and Macha against each other, sees the latter prevail on points (4-3), which allows him to miss the following round which sees Helbing and the Finnish face off, like Bykov and Gopfert.
And so, while the just 19-year-old West German kicks Huhtala out of the tournament by landing him after just 2’09”the outcome of the second match is disputed, as, with the two wrestlers on a perfectly equal footing (5-5), the referee disqualifies Gopfert for passivity when there are just 6″ left at the end of the 9′ regulation minuteswhich means that only Bykov and Macha remain in the race (with one and 1.5 penalty points respectively), in addition to Helbing, who however has already accumulated four …
The regulation provides that the outcome of any match already played during the Tournament is valid – or rather the affirmation of the Soviet against the German due to passivity in the first round – so it’s up to Macha to get on the platform to overtake Helbing with the same score, who therefore has to settle for the lowest step of the podium and therefore finding himself facing Bykov for a possible encore of the Olympic title, a feat that, in the Welterweight Category, had so far been accomplished only by the Turkish Mithat Bayrak at the Melbourne 1956 and Rome 1960 Games, however having to surrender to the points (7-3) respect to the wrestler of Russian origin.
The failure to confirm the Gold of Monaco gives birth to a great deal desire for redemption in Macha who, the following year, imposed himself at the European Championships at the end of May 1977 in Bursa, Turkey, overcoming Gopfert in the Final, to then hit his second world title at the World Championships in mid-October in Gothenburg, in which the last to surrender is Shopovbefore taking part in his fourth Olympics in 1980 in Moscow, still capable of doing well despite 32 springs, finishing sixth after being defeated in the fourth round on points (6-2) by Shopov who thus takes his revenge …
With a Palmarès which speaks of an Olympic gold and silver, two world titles, one title, two silvers and as many continental bronzesI challenge anyone to want to remove the title of “fight icon” in your own country …