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Olga Fikotová, Olympic discus thrower from Melbourne, died at the age of 91. After leaving the country with her husband Harold Connolly, she wore the USA jersey four more times at the Olympic Games, in Munich 1972 she was the flag bearer of the team.
Olga Fikotová was born on November 13, 1932 in Prague. She grew up and started playing sports in Tatran Libuš. She was a great sports talent. In 1954, the discus record holder Zdeněk Čihák discovered a promising basketball and volleyball player for athletics. He brought her to the hurling plot of Red Star in Stromovky (today’s Olymp). She impressed at the very first training, where she threw 33 meters and was taken care of by the then head coach of athletics Zbyněk Příhoda.
After a year of training, she already won the championship of Czechoslovakia, once more in the following season of 1956. Even though we had excellent discus players Mertová and Vobořilová at the time, it was Fikotová who broke the 50 meter barrier first. In total, she entered the domestic record lists three times, with performances of 51.71, 51.80 and most recently 53.69 m, which she won at the end of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. In addition, the student of the Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University managed five international matches for her native country, of which she won four.
Four more Olympics
Melbourne was crucial not only from a sporting point of view. Meeting hammer champion Harold Connolly, a year older than him, was love at first sight. Although the communist regime did not want their relationship, the couple got married, even directly in Czechoslovakia. For the wedding to take place, a great theater had to be performed. Connolly “fell ill” during a stopover in Prague, the Zátopeks accommodated him at their home, Emil negotiated “permission” with President Zápotocký… The ceremony was attended by thousands in the center of the capital despite secrecy and the deadline being a weekday (Wednesday at 10 a.m.) people.
The couple then moved overseas. Olga wanted to represent Czechoslovakia at the Olympic Games in Rome, but there was no interest from our officials. She thus started in the jersey of the United States of America, finishing seventh. Then she was twelfth in Tokyo 1964 and eighth in Mexico. In Munich 1972, she finished in the qualification, although she threw a personal record of 57.60 just this season. In addition, she had the honor of carrying the US flag during the ceremony.
Harold competed in three more Olympic Games following Melbourne. He broke the world record six times, he was the first to break 70, but he did not reach another Olympic medal either. His best was sixth in Tokyo.
The Connollys had four children, their second son James (born while they lived in Finland) won silver in the decathlon at the Universiade in 1987. The marriage did not last (they divorced in 1975), but Olga always spoke of Harold with respect. She did not become a doctor, but she was involved in the social field and ecology, and even in her advanced age she worked in Las Vegas as a personal trainer for people following injuries and the elderly.
Harold Connolly died in August 2010. Olga Fikotova Connolly left us on Friday, April 12, 2024. She was the last surviving American Olympic champion from Melbourne in 1956. (89-year-old Irish 15-meter champion Ron Delany is alive and well in Dublin, according to EME News.) News of her the death was published by PJ Vazel on the X network.
The Czech Athletic Association expresses its sincere condolences to the loved ones.
