06.01.2008 Vrchlabí

JOSEF RÖSSLER OŘOVSKÝ

When you say the word Krkonoše today, it usually means an order to put winter tyres on the car, get your skis and skiwear together and set out for the north with a well-stuffed wallet.

Of course, the charming fairytales and old stories of our forebears remain, and here and there we can find a little completely untouched countryside, but the Krkonoše range of the Third Millennium is first an foremost one great sports centre with many pistes and lifts, exclusive hotels and chalets in more or less acceptable architectural styles. Here you can happily spend your money in casinos or famous bars, but above all enjoy down-hill skiing on the steep pistes or put on your cross-country skis and race along the mildly rolling ridges. People started to ski in the Krkonoše as early as the 1880s, and the range was among the first in Europe to take up the new sport. But if there hadn't been a few Norwegians from the firm of Heude & Gustafsson... But let's begin from the beginning! It all started with a generally ordinary, well-built lad who was born in Prague on the 29th of June 1869. His name was Josef Rössler. He lived only to the age of 64, but became an important sports official, publicist and sportsman. You could call him the Jára Cimrman of Czech sport (Cimrman is an invented 19th-century all-round Czech genius, and a cult figure of modern Czech comedy). Judge for yourself. Josef was an outstanding rower and skier, he played football for the Parisian club White Rowers and the English Black Trials Fulham and he was the first Czech football referee. He founded the Czech Ski-Club, the Czech Yacht Club and the Czech Lawn Tennis Club. He shared in the founding of the Association of Skiers of the Bohemian Kingdom, the Association of Canoeists of the Bohemian Kingdom and the Czech Yachting Association. And we could carry on. Naturally at the turn of the 19th/20th century he was there at the establishment of the Czech Olympic Committee, and in the years 1908 - 1929 he was its general secretary.

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