Barbora Spotakova at the pre-meet press conference in Rome (© Bob Ramsak)
Having decided to end her season early after winning the IAAF Samsung Diamond League Trophy in the javelin event, an honour she ranks only below winning the Olympic title in Beijing, Diamond League Ambassador Barbora Spotakova has been rehabilitating her longstanding elbow injury and doing her best to do not very much else...
“I’ve been relaxing. I have taken some time out, and gone for a holiday in the Czech Republic. It was no problem for me to stop working – but I must admit a week ago I started to feel very strange, because doing nothing is not good!
“So now I am doing a little jog every day, and visiting the physio for work on my elbow, which is pretty good. In a couple of weeks’ time I will be going on a trip to Hungary to visit the thermal baths there, which will be very relaxing and good therapy for my elbow.
“I will be progressing step by step, because in the middle of October we stay in the mountains in the Czech Republic and start the physical preparations for next season and I don’t want to start that from ground zero.
“I have been doing a lot of media interviews in the last few weeks. When I am in the middle of the season I like to concentrate on my competitions, but afterwards there is time to talk. A lot of the interviews have been with women’s magazines. It is quite nice not to be talking about the javelin all the time!
“I have also been doing some TV work. I appeared on a popular programme here called Who Am I? I was a mystery guest, and a panel of people had to guess who I was. The first part didn’t take long – once I had answered yes to being a sportsperson, which was the second question, they guessed me! But the second part, where they have to guess what you would have been if you did not do what you did, took a lot longer. It meant I raised quite a lot of money for charity, because the more guesses they have, the more is raised.
“If I had not been a sports person, I would probably have been a farmer who took particular care with the environment – a Green farmer, I guess – as I got a degree in agriculture. My course in the United States specialised in ecological and environmental issues.
“One of the other things I enjoyed during my time off was a visit to Pilsen, in the Czech Republic, where the world-famous Pilsner beer is made. I got to tour all of the breweries, visiting the places the public were not always shown, and I enjoyed sampling the beers, which I got to drink from the wooden kegs!
“As I am talking to you, I am walking through the centre of Prague, because tonight my boyfriend Lukas and I have tickets to see Sting in concert. I always like to take the opportunity of seeing people who are really good at what they do, whether it is sport or music or whatever.
“Oh, and one other thing – I am looking to buy a big motorbike. I have a car and drive many thousands of kilometres in it, but I also have a scooter for getting around town, and I want to get something bigger and more powerful. I am starting with 500cc and going up...
Barbora