Eva Bosáková

Eva Bosáková

File:Eva Bosáková circa 1960.jpg Eva Bosáková circa 1960
Personal information
Born	(1931-12-18)18 December 1931 Mladá Boleslav, Czechoslovakia
Died	10 January 1991(1991-01-10) (aged 59) Prague, Czechoslovakia
Sport
Country	Czechoslovakia
Medal record Olympic Games Gold medal – first place 1960 Rome Balance Beam Silver medal – second place 1956 Melbourne Balance Beam Silver medal – second place 1960 Rome Team Bronze medal – third place 1952 Helsinki Team World Championships Gold medal – first place 1958 Moscow Floor Exercise Gold medal – first place 1962 Prague Balance Beam Silver medal – second place 1954 Rome All-Around Silver medal – second place 1954 Rome Balance Beam Silver medal – second place 1954 Rome Floor Exercise Silver medal – second place 1958 Moscow Team Silver medal – second place 1958 Moscow All-Around Silver medal – second place 1958 Moscow Uneven Bars Silver medal – second place 1962 Prague Team Silver medal – second place 1962 Prague Uneven Bars Bronze medal – third place 1954 Rome Team European Championships Bronze medal – third place 1957 Bucharest Balance Beam Bronze medal – third place 1957 Bucharest Floor Exercise Bronze medal – third place 1959 Krakow Floor Exercise

Eva Bosáková-Hlaváčková, née Věchtová (18 December 1931 – 10 January 1991) was a gymnast from Czechoslovakia whose career spanned at least from the 1954 World Championships to the 1962 World Championships. Her father was also a gymnast for the Czech national team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. During the time period of 1958-1962, Bosakova and her famous teammate Věra Čáslavská were always the two highest-scoring Czechoslovakian women gymnasts at the largest, most prestigious championships during those years - the 1958 World Championships, 1959 European Championships, 1960 Olympics, 1961 European Championships, and 1962 World Championships. As a very strong "one-two punch", they continued the Czechoslovakian legacy in the sport of Women's Artistic Gymnastics established by the sport's first-ever Women's World All-Around Champion Vlasta Děkanová, and others such as Zdeňka Veřmiřovská, Matylda Pálfyová, and Zdeňka Honsová. Bosáková and Čáslavska led the Czechoslovakian women's gymnastics team to three successive World/Olympic silver medals in a row (1958 Worlds, 1960 Olympics, 1962 Worlds), therefore being the foremost challengers to the dominant Soviet women's team during that era.

File:Eva Bosakova.jpg

Grave of Eva Bosáková at Vinohrady Cemetery in Prague

On balance beam, where she is credited for being the first woman gymnast to compete a cartwheel (at the 1956 Olympics), she was World (1962) and Olympic (1960) champion, and she was good enough on all four events combined to become All-Around silver medalist at two consecutive World Championships (1958, 1962). After her competitive career was over, Bosakova became a member of the Czechoslovak Song and Dance Ensemble and later became a coach in her home country. She starred in the 1963 film Something Different, directed by Věra Chytilová.

See also

• List of top medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

External links

• "Czechoskovak Life - Eva Bosakova". Gymn Forum. 2002-04-25. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
• "Results : Gymn Forum". Gymn-forum.net. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
• "Innovators in Gymnastics". Gymn Forum. 2004-04-02. Retrieved 2017-01-06.