 Svoboda in 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 19 March 1985 Prague, Czech Republic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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David Svoboda (Czech pronunciation: [ˈdavɪt ˈsvoboda]; born 19 March 1985) is a Czech athlete who competes in the modern pentathlon. At the 2012 London Olympics, Svoboda won the gold medal in the Olympic pentathlon. At the 2008 Olympics, Svoboda was 28th in the pentathlon.[1]
David is the twin brother of professional triathlete Tomáš Svoboda.
On March 29, 2023, he caused outrage and a media storm[2] with his comments on Czech TV on the dispute over the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris in connection with Russian aggression in Ukraine. He was invited to an interview on Studio ČT24[3] as the Czech Olympic Committee Sportsmen's Commission chairman. In his answers, he questioned Russian war crimes in Ukraine.[4]
Several personalities criticized his statements,[5] for example, Dominik Hašek, who declared on Twitter that Svoboda supported Russian propaganda and crimes, including the genocide of Ukrainian children, and must bear the consequences for this.[6] Vavřinec Hradilek and Lukáš Rohan, members of the Czech Olympic Committee Sportsmen's Commission, distanced themselves from his opinions and declared that Svoboda's opinion is not the commission's.[7] Journalist Jiří X. Doležal even commented that he should be stripped of his functions and uniform and tried for questioning genocide under Section 405 of the Czech Criminal Code.[8] Defense Minister Jana Černochová joined the criticism, distancing herself from Svoboda's statements on behalf of the entire defense department, inviting him to the interview and showing him 200 photos of killed Ukrainian athletes.[6][9]
Svoboda apologized for his statements and publicly asked for forgiveness,[6] for which he drew criticism from people who welcomed his original statement.[10] He resigned from his position in the commission, saying that "the dual role of a soldier and a representative of athletes in the commission does not go together."[11] The director of DUKLA Army Sports Center, Pavel Benc, announced that Svoboda would receive a written reprimand because he neglected the obligation of a professional soldier "to behave even outside of duty in such a way as not to endanger the seriousness and credibility of the armed forces."[11][12]
