Vašek Klouda
Vašek Klouda (born 1986) is a Czech competitive freestyle footbag player. Raised and resident in Prague, in the Czech Republic, Klouda started playing footbag when he was 13. He won his first Footbag World Championship in 2002 in San Francisco, beating the two-time defending champion Ryan Mulroney in the most tightly contested finals ever. He completed a clean sweep by taking first place in the three major freestyle disciplines: 2 Minute Routines, Shred30, and Sick 3. Klouda has since successfully defended his title five times, in Prague in 2003, Montreal in 2004, in Helsinki in 2005, in Frankfurt in 2006, and in Orlando in 2007. He holds the record for most consecutive World Titles (6), as well as total World Titles (7).
In the 2008 IFPA Footbag World Championships, held in Prague, Klouda was beaten by Damian Gielnicki of Poland, ending his bid for a 7th straight world championship.
Bouncing back from 2008, Klouda reclaimed the world title in Berlin, Germany.[1] At the tournament Klouda's first book was launched. The Vašek Klouda Manual: How to Play Footbag is an eBook downloadable from the Czech Footbag Association's homepage.[2]
In Klouda's autobiography he mentions tennis, boxing and Tae Kwon Do. He also talks about his time learning Chess and says, "I also had a chance to play against the then world champion Kasparov".
Major tournament victories
- Footbag World Championships 2002 (San Francisco, California, USA)
- Footbag World Championships 2003 (Prague, Czech Republic)
- Footbag World Championships 2004 (Montreal, Canada)
- Footbag World Championships 2005 (Helsinki, Finland)
- Footbag World Championships 2006 (Frankfurt, Germany)
- Footbag World Championships 2007 (Orlando, Florida, USA)
- Footbag World Championships 2009 (Berlin, Germany)
- European Championships 2002 (Budapest, Hungary)
- European Championships 2003 (Frankfurt, Germany)
- European Championships 2004 (Copenhagen, Denmark)
- European Championships 2005 (Wroclaw, Poland)
- European Championships 2006 (Lausanne, Switzerland)
- European Championships 2007 (Vienna, Austria)
- European Championships 2011 (Madrid, Spain)