Jana Komrsková

Jana Komrsková
— Gymnast —
Country represented	Czech Republic
Born	(1983-05-06) May 6, 1983 Roudnice nad Labem
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics

Jana Komrsková (born May 6, 1983 in Roudnice nad Labem) is an artistic gymnast from Czech Republic, who participated in 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympic Games.

Biography

Career to 2000

Komrsková, daughter of a gymnastics coach Jan Komrska and 1972 Olympian Zdena Komrsková (née Dorňáková), started gymnastics at the age of four. Both parents were her coaches in her home gym in Zlín, also her younger sister Aneta competed in gymnastics, while her older sister Lucie was one of the leading Czech long-jumpers. Her role model was Olympic champion Svetlana Boginskaya. In age of 10, she was a member of the Czech national junior team and in 1995 she participated in the European Junior Championships for the first time.

Her progress was very fast, in 1997 she won three titles in the senior national championships, including the all-around title, which belongs to her in following years as well. She shows uneven bars and vault are going to be her strongest apparatuses.

In 1999 Komrsková participated in the Tianjin World Championships, where she finished in ninth place in the all-around qualification, but major faults on beam sent her back to 33rd in the all-around final. The goal - qualification for the Olympic Games - was fulfilled only partially, the Czech team finished in 16th place, not qualifying for Sydney, but that let two individual gymnasts to go to Australia.

In the Olympic year, Komrsková recorded her first successes in the Grand Prix (2nd place on vault in Cottbus behind Russia's Elena Produnova) and finished 9th in the European Championships all-around.

She participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics together with Kateřina Marešová, but only she managed to qualify for the all-around individual final, finishing in 29th place. She had to fight pain in her forearm after she got infected through her blisters. Immediately after the final she had to undergo a small surgery intervention.^[1]

After the Games, Komrsková finished in fourth place on both uneven bars and vault in the World Cup final in Glasgow.

Career to 2004

After her first Olympic participation, Komrsková already belonged to the world elite, waiting for her first big international success. She missed it narrowly in 2001. Following several podium finishes in the World Cup events, she arrived to the Ghent 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships as one of the vault favorites. She advanced to the final and finished fourth behind top vaulters Svetlana Khorkina, Oksana Chusovitina and Andreea Răducan, losing bronze medal to Raducan by 0.037 pt.

Komrsková continued her career connecting World Cup successes to her bad luck results in the international championships. She was the stand-by for vault final in 2003 World Artistic Championships and for uneven bars final in 2002 European Championships, missing the final by 0.012 pt. Her 11th place in the all-around competition in the 2002 European Championships was her top result in this period. She managed to clinch the only Czech place for the 2004 Summer Olympics, but she also brought home injured elbow from Anaheim, the host city of the 2003 World Championships, at the end of the year she also broke bones in her foot. Ahead of the Olympic Games, Komrsková thus missed European and national championships because of rehabilitation and training, managing meanwhile to finish her high school studies.

In the 2004 Summer Olympics, Komrsková finished 32nd in the all-around qualification and was the second alternate for the final as the number of the finalists was reduced from 32 to 24 between 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. As Romania's Oana Ban withdrew from the final, Komrsková was the best gymnast not to compete in the final. (Australia's Moorhouse replaced her compatriot Monette Russo).

About her participation in the 2004 Olympics, Komrsková said: "When I was in the Olympic Games before, I was younger and I was a bit overwhelmed. Now it's a normal competition for me. I still think the Olympics is the most important competition for an athlete, but now I am a lot more relaxed about it."^[2]

Interruption of Career and Comeback

In 1999, Komrsková said she would do athletics if she was not gymnast.^[3] After the 2004 Olympic Games, Komrsková finally decided to end her gymnastics career and to try athletics. Her aim was to compete in pole vault, following the example of the former Czech gymnast and later pole vault world record holder Daniela Bártová. Komrsková however did not proceed well, being limited by her elbow injury. She also tried to join her sister Lucie in long jump, but finally decided to come back to gymnastics.

She had to change her coaches, as both parents already retired from gymnastics coaching, so the national team coach Stanislav Vyzina took care of her in Brno.

In late 2005 she returned to Czech competitions, but did not feel prepared enough to participate in the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships yet. She also visited her sister's wedding during the championships.^[4]

She however soon recorded good results in World Cup events in her strong vault: she won her first ever World Cup final - the B-category World Cup in Maribor. In 2006 she continued with strong performances in the World Cup (Maribor - 1st vault, 3rd balance beam; Moscow - 2nd vault, Lyon - 2nd vault etc.), but also participated in top international championships. The European Championships took place in Volos, Greece and Komrsková finished fourth in the vault final, only 0.075 pts off the podium. She also recorded 11th best result in the all-around individual qualification (no individual all-around final was held).

She confirmed her supremacy in the Czech national championships, winning four of five possible titles, and in the World Championships, where she was the best of the Czech team and narrowly missed the all-around final. She finished 32nd in the qualification becoming the second stand-by alternate for the final, and as Lais Souza of Brazil withdrew for the final and American Ashley Priess replaced injured compatriot Chellsie Memmel, she was the first gymnast not qualified (like in the 2004 Olympics).

By participating in the finals in the following competition (World Cup finals in Brazil, December 2006, and European Championships in Amsterdam, April 2007), she confirmed herself as the top vaulter.

She qualified in the vault event finals of the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart finishing in seventh place. Her vaults received high execution marks but their relative lack of difficulty prevented her from finishing higher.

The Czech Republic have qualified to send one gymnast to the 2008 Olympics. As Jana is very experienced and was their only athlete to qualify to a final at the 2007 worlds, she was thought to have a good chance of being selected for Beijing. However, she has said that as she has been to the Olympics twice it is time for another Czech gymnast to have the opportunity, and to this end she retired in early 2008.

Trivia

• Jana Komrsková is 1.67 m (5.5 ft) tall, which makes her one of the tallest athletes among the world elite gymnasts.
• Komrsková acted in a television advertisement campaign for a Czech mineral water producer.
• She was also the topic of a television documentary. The Czech Television series about young people outstanding in their domains was named "Do Not Extinguish, I'm on fire!" (Czech: Nehasit, hořím!) and was first aired in 2003.
• In 2001, the Czech sport journalists voted Komrsková to 18th place in the Czech Athlete of the Year poll. She beat Pavel Nedvěd and others. She also won the Progym.cz Agency poll Czech Gymnast of the Year several times.
• Father Jan Komrska coached Komrsková in the 2000 Summer Olympics, while mother Zdena did it in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Komrsková said: "The lots were cast before Sydney, who will fly with me. Now the parents changed their roles."^[5]

Footnotes

External links

• Jana Komrsková at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
• Komrsková's Profile on Gymbox.net web