Czechoslovakian Olga Fikotova, the 1956 Olympic Discus Champion, died at age 91 of breast cancer in Costa Mesa, California on April 14, 2024. During the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, Olga met Harold Connolly, the American who won the gold medal in the 16-pound hammer throw. Their Cold War romance sparked a hopeful wish for peace around the world. Their eventual marriage in Prague in 1957 was held in the renowned St. Vitus Cathedral with thousands of spectators overflowing outside its doors.
Early Athletic Talent
Olga Fikotova was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on November 13, 1932 and showed incredible athleticism from her early years. She chose to play soccer, rather than the violin that her parents preferred. In high school, she was good enough to represent Czechoslovakia on their national teams in both handball and basketball. She then went to Prague’s Charles University School of Medicine where the team sports took up so much time that she could not devote adequate time for her medical studies, and she decided to try an individual sport that took less of her time. Two years before the 1956 Olympics, she started to train for, and compete in, the discus throw. However, she was not an immediate winner and was fortunate enough to enlist Nina Ponomareva-Romashkova, the champion Soviet discus thrower, to train her in Warsaw, Poland. Incredibly, at age 24, she beat her Soviet mentor in the discus throw in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Family Problems with the Czechoslovakian Government
Olga’s family had a long history of difficulty with the communist government of Czechoslovakia. Her father had served in the security detail for Tomas Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. When the communists took over the government in 1948 after the Nazi occupation, he was sent to prison for two years. When Olga decided that she wanted to marry Hal Connolly, it was at the height of the cold war between communism and the capitalistic Western World, so Czech government authorities called her a traitor and said she would not be given permission to marry a U.S. citizen. Several journalists asked U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, if the Eisenhower administration would intervene to help them marry. Dulles reported that it was basic U.S. policy that we believe in romance. That was when Czech Emil Zatopek, the premier long-distance runner in the world, arranged for her to meet with Czech president, Antonin Zapotocky. He told Olga he would put in a kind word. A few days later Harold and Olga received permission from the Czech government to marry and more than 30,000 people turned out to see the wedding in the Prague Town Square. Emil Zatopek was best man. Olga had to leave medical school and the couple moved to the United States. She was told by the Czechoslovakian Olympic Committee that she could not represent Czechoslovakia, so she received U.S. citizenship and represented the U.S in the next four Olympics. She was the American flag bearer at the 1972 Summer Olympics. They had four children:
- Mark, a Golden Gloves boxer
- Jim, a national-class javelin thrower and 1987 NCAA Decathlon Champion for UCLA
- Merja, Captain of UCLA’s Volleyball Championship team, who went on to play professional Volleyball in Italy
- Nina, a talented singer who sang in her church choir with Patti La Belle.
Seventeen years later, what the news media had billed as the love match of the century ended in divorce. Olga worked as a Certified Exercise Therapist in a wellness program at the University of California at Irvine until 2017 and then moved to Nevada to coach at the EoS Fitness Club in Las Vegas.
I learned of Olga’s passing from Hal’s second wife, Billee Pat Winslow-Connolly, who was a three-time Olympian who went on to coach dozens of US national champions and Olympic, and World champions. Diana and I spent many hours over many years riding tandem bicycles with Pat and Harold Connolly. In 2010, Hal Connolly died at age 79 when he fell off of his stationary bicycle at a gym in Catonsville, Maryland and hit his head on the floor. He was a four-time Olympian who broke the American record for the hammer twelve times and the world record seven times.
Lessons from Olga Fikotova’s Life and Death
Often government laws and social customs prevent people from achieving happiness and security. In the case of Olga and Harold, they could have been forbidden to marry because of the tremendous antagonism between communism and the capitalistic systems at the height of the “cold war” between Russian allies and the western societies. However, this time a kind gesture from Emil Zatopec, one of the world’s greatest athletes, allowed them to choose their own future and Olga was able to become a U.S. citizen.
November 13, 1932 – April 12, 2024
