Petr Sodomka

"We were training in 1968 and he was crossing the river, a short traverse. He came up to like... they made an entrance of stakes to hold back the water so there would be a step. And the water was flowing through it and he fell down and this pushed him on the stakes and with the water flowing through he just couldn't do anything. So I got out of the boat, I jumped in, I ripped the boat off of him. He came up and started slapping and talking to me in German. Supposedly, there were some great guys that pressed the time, how long he was there, and they said it was almost three minutes. Normally he was completely calm, he was like... well, he was coughing and he was good. The way the water just flowed in there with the air, he doesn't even remember."

"I wanted to be a coach, so I actually kind of asked for it. I told the Dukla boss at the time that I wanted to do it, that I was going to quit, and he said, 'Peter, look, there's no job.' We went to Dzúr for the bonuses and Dzúr said, 'If anyone has a problem, tell me, we'll sort it out.' So I applied. I basically broke military regulations because I bypassed the commander, right. He had to go to him, so I had to go with him and I told him that I wanted to be a trainer when I finished my career, but he said there was no room, so I was going to quit. And he said, 'That's no problem, let's get the wires hot.' On Monday there was an order in Brandýs, a place in the chart. And they started coming after me. So at first I said I was going to defend the title, and then I said it was pointless, so I quit."