Roman Šebrle

Roman Šebrle IPA2|'roman 'ʃɛbr̩lɛ (born November 26, 1974) is an athlete from the Czech Republic. Originally a high jumper, he competes in decathlon and heptathlon for team TJ Dukla Praha and is a world record holder in the decathlon. In 2001 in Götzis he became the first decathlete ever to achieve over 9,000 points, setting the record at 9,026 points, succeeding his compatriot, Tomáš Dvořák, who had scored 8,994 points two years earlier.

After placing second in the decathlon during the 2000 Summer Olympics, Šebrle won the gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Tradition dictates the winner of the decathlon holds the title of "World's Greatest Athlete". [ [http://www.sptimes.com/2004/02/08/Sports/World_s_Greatest_Athl.shtml World's Greatest Athlete] ] Šebrle has held the title five of the past seven years.

A panel of experts convened by the Wall Street Journal in 2008 also ranked Šebrle as the world's greatest athlete. [ [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121392004594090355.html The World's Greatest Athlete?] ]

Private life

Roman Šebrle was born in Lanškroun, Czechoslovakia. He studied at "Gymnázium Františka Martina Pelcla" ( _en. Secondary School of František Martin Pelcl) in Rychnov nad Kněžnou and at Gymnázium Pardubice. Then he studied an extension course of Information Science and Computer Technology. cite web
title = My Biography
work = Roman Šebrle's homepage
url = http://www.sebrleroman.cz/o-mne/muj-zivotopis.html
accessdate = 2007-09-02 (Czech) ]

On 14 October 2000 Šebrle married Eva Kasalová, [ cite news
last =
first =
coauthors =
title = Svatby celebrit
work = Blesk.cz
pages =
language = Czech
publisher = Ringier, iABC, Reflex, Sport, Televize
date =
url = http://svatba.blesk.cz/Clanek48655.htm
accessdate =2007-09-02 ] a former Czech athlete who competed on the track at 400 and 800 metres. His son, Štěpán, was born on 4 September 2002 and his daughter Kateřina on 30 January 2006. [ cite web
title = My family
work = Roman Šebrle's homepage
url = http://www.sebrleroman.cz/o-mne/moje-rodina.html
accessdate = 2007-09-02 (Czech) ]

porting career

Beginning

When Roman Šebrle was six years old, he started playing football, but also occasionally took part in athletics competitions. In 1987 he broke his calf bone and shin bone on one leg in a collision with the opponent goalkeeper during a football match. After this incident he had his leg in plaster for 2 months and spent one year learning to walk. ]

He competed in his first decathlon competition in 1991 in Týniště nad Orlicí, reaching 5,187 points. Then he met coach Jiří Čechák who convinced him to change school from Rychnov nad Kněžnou to Pardubice, where he joined the Track and Field club in 1992. He improved his decathlon personal best to 7642 points, although he did just light training. ]

TJ Dukla Praha

In 1995 he started his two-year compulsory military service in the Czech Armed Forces. He joined the army sports club TJ Dukla Praha and its group of decathletes led by coach Jiří Váňa, and has stayed its member since that time. ] Thus he is still automatically a soldier of the Czech army, although in fact he does not take part in any military operations and with few exceptions [cite web | title="Major Šebrle ready to fire!" | work=Ministry of Defense of the Czech Rep. | url= http://www.army.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=7954 | accessdate=2007-03-17] in any military training. [cite web | title=Interview with Šebrle | work=radio.cz| url= http://www.radio.cz/en/article/32257/limit | accessdate=2007-03-17 (Czech) ]

Achievements

In 1996 Šebrle achieved a score of over 8,000 points for the first time, reaching 8,210 points at a meeting in Prague. His first big success came in 1997, when he won the World University Games in Sicily and came ninth at the World Championships in Athens. In 1999 he was successful at the World Indoor Championships in Maebashi, where he won bronze in the heptathlon, and one year later at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Ghent, where he took silver.

By the end of the discus discipline at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, after Estonian Erki Nool was red-flagged three times by the discus judge, it seemed that Roman Šebrle was on course for the gold medal. However, the competition referee over-ruled the decision and Šebrle finally took silver. cite web | title=Biography:Roman Šebrle | work=IAAF | url= http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/athlete=130083/BioPopUp.html | accessdate=2007-09-01]

In March 2001 he won the first major tournament - the World Indoor Championships in Lisbon - and in May he shocked the world with a new world record of 9,026 points, marking the first time (and as of 2008, the only time) a decathlete has ever broken the illustrious 9,000 point barrier. However, due to an injury he couldn´t do himself justice and finished a disappointed 10th in the World Championships in Edmonton.

Then he left the Váňa's group and started to train with coach Dalibor Kupka in the same club. In 2002 he managed to win both European Indoor Championships in Vienna and European Championships in Munich. In 2004 in Athens he finally managed to win the Olympic Games, reaching 8,893 points and thus beating the 20-year-old Olympic record set by the British decathlete Daley Thompson in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. [cite web | title=Roman Šebrle's profile | work=olympic.org | url= http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/profiles/bio_uk.asp?PAR_I_ID=122358 | accessdate=2007-03-01] After the victory in Athens, the Czech minister of defence promoted him to the rank of major. [cite web
title=Kühnl promoted Šebrle to Major
work=sport.cz
url= http://www.sport.cz/clanek/40831-kuhnl-povysil-sebrleho-na-majora.html
accessdate=2007-03-17 (Czech)]

Šebrle’s best World Championships results were gold in 2007 (Osaka) and silver in 2003 (Paris) and 2005 (Helsinki). He was also successful at the World Indoor Championships in heptathlon, taking gold in 2001 (Edmonton) and 2004 (Budapest, beating the European record with 6,438 points) and bronze in 1999 (Maebashi), 2003 (Birmingham) and 2006 (Moscow). In 2005 he won the European Indoor Championships in heptathlon (Madrid), in 2006 the European Championships in decathlon for the second time (Gothenburg) and in 2007 he managed to get his third European indoor gold (Birmingham). ] The sum of his personal bests in individual disciplines is 9,326 points (the third ever best after Dan O'Brien and Mike Smith). [ cite web
title=Total points based on personal bests
work=Decathlon'2000 site
url=http://www.decathlon2000.ee/eng/statistics.php?art=841
accessdate=2007-09-01] He is the only decathlete who finished 40 decathlon competitions with the score over 8,000 points and 20 competitions with the score over 8,500 points (as of October 2007). [ cite web
title=Roman Šebrle
work=Decathlon 2000
date=25 September 2007
url=http://www.decathlon2000.ee/eng/athletes.php?art=577
accessdate=2007-10-21 ] Šebrle was also voted the Best Czech Athlete of the Year five times in a row (2001-2006), [cite web
title=Winners of the Best Athletes of the Year
work=ABC Prague
url= http://www.abcprague.com/2006/11/13/winners-of-the-best-athletes-of-the-year
accessdate=2007-03-01] and in 2004 he received the title of the Czech Sportsman of the Year. [ cite web
title=Winners of the Czech Sportsman of the Year
work=Klub sportovních novinářů ČR
url= http://www.ksn.cz/index.php?dok=0045
accessdate=2007-03-01 (Czech)]

Javelin injury

On 22 January 2007, Šebrle was injured by a javelin thrown by a South African female javelin thrower, Sunette Viljoen, from a distance of 55 metres while training in Potchefstroom, South Africa. The javelin pierced the edge of his right shoulder from the front, 12 cm deep. Shocked, Šebrle ripped the javelin out immediately, which could have caused even more damage. Luckily for him, it did not cause any serious injury, because it slipped between a muscle and his skin. He was taken to a hospital, but left soon with just eleven stitches. However, he was limited in training for some time, especially in the pole vault. Later he stated that he was only 20 cm away from being killed and 1 cm from an injury that would have ended his career. [cite web
title=Lucky to be alive
work=BBC Sport | url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/6378215.stm
accessdate=2007-02-28] [cite web
title=Speared decathlon champion Sebrle '20cm from death'
work=Yahoo Sport
url= http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/23012007/3/speared-decathlon-champion-sebrle-20cm-death.html
accessdate=2007-03-01] [cite web
title=Šebrle's shoulder decorated with 11 stitches
work=Idnes.cz| url= http://sport.idnes.cz/sebrleho-rameno-zdobi-jedenact-stehu-dsd-/atletika.asp?c=A070123_164502_atletika_pes
accessdate=2007-04-01 (includes photo, text in Czech)]

Personal Bests

List of results

References

External links

*iaaf name|id=130083|name=Roman Sebrle
* [http://www.czech.cz/en/czech-republic/history/famous-czechs-of-the-past-century/roman-sebrle/ Roman Šebrle] - profile
* [http://www.sebrleroman.cz/ Roman Šebrle] - official web page cs icon
* [http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1819129_1819134_1825661,00.html "Roman Sebrle"] , n°8 on "Time"’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"