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Lucie HRSTKOVÁ deceives with her body - her gentle big-eyed face should conceal the whims of a seventeen-year old girl rather than a stubborn will, the graceful curves would rather indicate a more tender way of keeping fit - not the double combination "fitness-soccer". However, if the sports commentaries looked back at the Olympics more closely than just with the screaming headlines: Thanks, guys!, they could not fail to see the exceptionality of Lucia´s skiing gift, the brighter ones the fact that her agressive skiing-conception finally put an end to the traditional "ladie´s recreational curves" of former Czech women representatives. In Nagano, the Men´s Giant Slalom was the only thing Lucia didn´t miss. "That´s just something else," she adds together with her father - her coach.

Maybe it´s the parents who determined her ungirlish wildness. Her father wished to have a son, the passed-on meaning of the pregnancy signs didn´t allow for another possibility either and her grandma even threatened in a joke that she could swear to it with her neck and head together. Gradually, two daughters were born in the Hrstka family. Lucia came first. "The disappointment lasted only for a moment, girls are better. And both of them lived such a life, that it made no difference anyway," looks back Mr.Hrstka. Lucia´s first memory (more than thirteen years old) is connected with skiing. Together with her sister they are skiing down a small hill behind their family house in Dolní Bečva and dad always pulls them up holding onto the poles. Another memory is a year younger, Croatia, a camp, later on memories from the ski hut at Radhošt take the lead, where a couple of families with children passed their free time or New Year´s Eve. "It was romantic in the way of the famous Czech family comedy "The world is fun with you", only even one level more fun," maintain both father and daughter. Father admits that he didn´t hold back the fiery temperament of his girls, daughter remembers how, when they were little, she and her sister liked wading through deep snow on the four kilometres long way to Radhošť, from where they could ski the whole way down home.

However, father Hrstka doesn´t see a direct connection between his skiing at regional championships as a boy and Lucia´s talent. Although my father was born nearby Rahošt´, his siblings also skied, but noone from the family raced. My parents were thinking more in recreational terms in my case - skiing in the winter, hiking in the summer. Generally, I believe that it actually isn´t important if someone with a gift for sports, or concretely for skiing, is born in the mountains. What matters more is how he spends his free time, if his parents and people who surround him lead him - not by force - to a rhythm, which will embed the need for sports in him in a natural way." This was exactly the case of Lucie Hrstková: her mercurial temper ("I didn´t like the afternoon nap in the kindergarden, those were the worst hours when I was just lying with my eyes closed"), her not exactly girlish hobbies ("she liked climbing up trees") and actually purely boyish ideas ("once in a swimming pool, it crossed my mind to slide down the toboggan with my feet first, but my hand slipped and I cut my chin on the sharp edge - I still have a scarf from 4 stitches"), were restrained by the parents with regular trips not only over weekends but also on work days: in the summer they organized hikes up to Radhošť, camped in the mountains, in the winter they skied down hills. "I think that in Lucia´s case it all took shape totally spontaneously," claims Mr.Hrstka. "I have never forced her to practice consciously in her childhood."

After all Russian, for a long time as role models celebrated, young prodiges who had one big doublephased practice instead of a childhood to satisfy the ambitions of their parents and their motherland, such an attitude is almost hard to believe. Is there really not even one skiing dream from Mr. Hrstka´s boys´days that didn´t come true that would propel him subconsciously? It is true that his daughter made it come true at the early age of seven - as a Dolní Bečva-racer she helped her team to win over Rožnov which noone could beat for decades... " However, only as a junior she got to feel what a real practice is: "I started racing abroad as well at that time, which meant spending more time on the training programme, summer preparation and the training camps than on fun." Today Lucia divides her year into an individual high school study plan, common afternoon practices ("approximately for half an hour we either develop muscles, or we train dexterity with gymnastics, the second half we play soccer, basketball and so on"), preparation on a glacier ("until two o´clock in the afternoon I´m on the skies, at four starts the practice on the field or in the fitness room") and the winter season. Lucia experienced her probably hardest training camp last summer: in the morning she ran up the hill, after breakfast she biked 70 kilometres, in the afternoon she sprinted and she spend the evenings with dumb-bells. And then she was ready to drop to bed. Skiing simply needs everything - stamina, power, speed and dexterity," he ends up objectively. I think she really likes it.
"In my opinion, Lucia has an natural aptitude for almost any kind of sport. She chose skiing, so she´s skiing" says about his disciple her father - her coach. It´s obvious that he´s the one who has almost a lion´s share on his daughter´s success. After all, Lucia has never had another coach: when she was four it was him who she begged to build slalom gates with tree branches, he accompanied her at her first races, he gave her a ride to school after the practice, he chose his shifts so that they could do sports on the weekend together and later, when it started to be serious, he quit work and started to devote his time only to her. "I had to decide whether I would continue skiing with Lucka or whether I would work. And because couch education doesn´t really work in our country, which to a certain point reflects our present skiing condition, I didn´t want to leave my daughter at the mercy and I began to take care of her on my own. I was looking for TV broadcasts, I was reading, I lived for it. Coach exams? I have them, but they just alone are now a side issue. "Lucia herself sees an unambiguous advantage in the combination of the father and coach role. "I would probably get used to a different coach but first he would have to win my trust. For years we´ve had a clear agreement and firm limits with my dad. He doesn´t have to tell me what to do, on the contrary, he gives me a lot of freedom which I necessarily need. Moreover, I can talk about skiing not only during the practice but also at home. Not that we would talk only about skiing there!"

While that´s probably what they talk about with her father at home, with her mom, they discuss fassion or books. Although it might not seem so at the first glance, it´s her who builds one of the basic stones of Lucia´s contentment: "From when we were little on she went to the mountains with us, many times she was present at the races, today she follows everything from at home. She´s a typical caring mom - as early as when I was a kid she´d rather not have a look at my pranks and until now she fears for me, but she keeps her fingers crossed for me and is always looking forward to seeing me. When I see how it is in the families of some of my friends from skiing, I feel that it´s important to have a good family background where mom and dad have a good relationship." It might seem abstract but both of them would almost place problemless childhood and harmony in the family before the essential talent for sports. "For any kind of sport it´s the most important thing: I saw how big of a problem can for some kids of Lucia´s age be for example financial difficulties or conflicts in the family. But because Lucia has always had the family background, her achievements may come - her races have to be without problems." Daughter Lucia provides a weighty prove: she was nervous only at races ("it was terrible - I stepped on the track and my heart was beating, I thought that I would not ski down and that I would rather run away" ), with confidence she thinks of the next one: "I got used to it, it´s such a normal thing for me as if I ´d go to school. It´s more my sister who makes me angry, I´m calm at races." Enviable. Even when thinking of the standard speed of approximately 80km/h she doesn´t see death in her eyes and she doesn´t have stiff legs. The worst thing is a delayed start. I ussualy warm up about twenty minutes before the race starts, to stretch my body. I´m not even superstitious - I take three stuffed animals with me when I go racing but I definitely don´t believe in any black cats. Maybe I´m not nervous and I´m not scared because I´m so young. Of course I would never do such things anymore as when, as a kid, I skied down through the woods, bending down and avoiding the trees."

There´s one more advantage Lucia enjoys: she´s not tied up by fears. Not carying the responsibility burden of the champions she can simply allow herself the comfort of looking forward to a race, not making a difference between an Olympic or a Cup race and not having the psychic load because she´s not having her best day. And she has probably also had a good coach. "I always try to put everything into the race. Actually, it happened a couple of times that because of my strenuous effort I ended up riding inattentively, disorderly, it simply didn´t work well, today I can evaluate it accurately, I don´t even have to watch the video which my dad sometimes makes. Most importantly, I know that it´s necessary to have a good feeling from the skiing. My dad has also always taught me that if I want to ski well, I have to incline to a more manlike skiing conception: he said that women might be skiing gracefully and lovely but that´s why it´s always going to be slow." The sixteen-year old Lucia doesn´t exactly suffer from a slow girlish skiing way - inspite of almost no practice in Nagano downhill she finished courageously (and she left older racers behind her): "I´m probably too young for this event - we´re getting ready for the first more regular practice this year. But I´d still like to do all four events (Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super Giant Slalom, downhill), although my greatest joy is the "Giant" on a broken slope, nice weather, when the skies carve into the snow and go down so nice ... that´s a feeling that a recreational skier simply doesn´t get to know."
It´s an totally pleasant discovery that someone has the trump cards in the pocket thanks to own effort. Moreover with college chances: "I´ve divided my last high school years - every year one finished semester. But I´d like to go on, although it´s still too early for a concrete decision." "I´ve always put emphasis on education," admits her father. "Noone knows what´s going to happen and this is something noone can take you away. I admit that Grammar school was the most feasible choice - any specialized school would be very hard to manage with a rare attendance."

Even though Lucia claims that her most memorable race was in Italy where she - being still a senior junior - took fourth place, the most recent (and apparantly the innermost) memories are from Nagano: "During the summer we didn´t really take the Olympiad into account yet, but in the end, Lucia got in through races. I think that despite some unfinished events she passed among the top racers with dignity," says the father. "When I don´t finish the Giant Slalom, I´m terribly unhappy: I squat in the finish and strenuously analyze what had happened, sometimes I even drop a tear. I remember my dad coming to me in Nagano and just telling me "...don´t be said, there´s going to be plenty of races like this one..." Minimally next year are the Hrstka´s planning to take part in the European, from time to time in the World Cup, in Junior World Championship and to start the four-year preparation for the Olympiad in Salt Lake City. Practice, training camp, glacier, school. I wonder if she doesn´t sometimes feel the urge to quit everything? "Lucka is a perfect disciple," swears Hrstka. "many kids of her age are very gifted as well but they lack her fairness. Sometimes I even feel sorry when I see the potential in them which they can´t take advantage of. If they´d take it at least for thirty per cent as serious as Lucka does, they could be a lot further. Although - naturally - she can also annoy me sometimes..." "Sometimes I´m really raging but I couldn´t give up sport anymore," says Lucia. "Last year we were on vacation by the seaside. For days I was just lying on the beach but then every evening I went roller skating or biking. I just always have to be doing something - I take the practice into account - I´d feel weird without it. Lucia actually doesn´t see other possibilities for the future: "I liked painting a lot, I enjoyed it, it was a peaceful relax. In the end, I had to drop the art group because of lack of time. Maybe I´d be good at it today, but who knows? Moreover, I´ve never thought that I´d do something else than skiing... Only gymnastics..."

When she came back from Nagano, a big surprise was waiting for her in her class, celebrations, gifts, a huge welcoming poster. She herself claims, and she might be the lucky type, that there´s noone around who would be dying of envy because of her success. "I have quite a lot of friends - girls in the class, guys, on the other hand, for skiing. I´ve never seen a big difference in it. Well - maybe guys are a little more simple, girls on the other hand more complicated because of the slanderous character." However, what if the age comes, is everything going to be a bit more complicated? "Although I do suppose there are secret crushes, Lucia still thinks of guys more as friends, " says the father. "However, I also know that a change has to come, I´m taking it into account. The question is how she takes off and I only wish it turns out well - mainly because of her, because I will face up to it somehow. I won´t regret it and maybe I´ll return to my initial occupation. But these are just reflections - now I can say that Lucia´s probably most valuable gift is her determination, her will to practice and to move on. And then also this vague distant goal: the thing is that the reserves are still so large that it´s not possible to define the top behind which she can touch.