Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Olympic Athletes Profile (19 of 25)- Martina Sablikova/women's speed skating/Czech Rep.




We have not posted as many entries as I would like for both Eastern European and Scandanavian countries, but today we will try to mend those proverbial fences by profiling Czech speed skater Martina Sablikova, 23, who has already won a gold medal in Vancouver.

Her brother Milan Sablikova is also competing at the Winter Olympics.

Martina won gold in the 3,000 meters competition on Feb. 14 by beating out German Stephanie Beckert (silver) and Canadian Kristina Graves (bronze). The AP said the Czech speed skater dominated the event with her trademark turns and wide sweeps through the corners.

In Turin, Martina finished fourth behind Canadian Clara Hughes (gold), German Claudia Pechstein (silver) and Canadian Cindy Klassen (bronze). Martina missed a bronze medal in Italy by a mere second.

Hughes and Klassen competed against Martina again in Vancouver. But, both faltered as Hughes finishes fifth and Klassen finished 14th.

Martina was named Sports Person of the Year in the Czech Republic in 2007 and in
2009.

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