What are the limits of human physical flexibility and mobility? Věra Čáslavská (1942–2016), who was born in the Nazi-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and devoted herself to figure skating and ballet at a young age, was determined to find out. She was introduced to the secrets of gymnastics by her coach Eva Bosáková, an Olympic champion and two-time world champion.
Thanks to this, Věra became a seven-time Olympic champion, four-time world champion, eleven-time European champion, and four-time Sportswoman of the Year of Czechoslovakia over the years.
She could undoubtedly have continued to win and break other records, but on August 21, 1968, Soviet tanks occupied Czechoslovakia to suppress the uprising of liberal reforms known as the Prague Spring. When Věra stood on the winner’s podium in October 1968 at the XIX Summer Olympics in Mexico City, she repeatedly protested with gestures during the Soviet anthem. Moreover, she had previously signed the liberal document “The Two Thousand Words.”
Although she was declared the best sportsman in the world that same year, the communist government banned her from competing and traveling abroad for many years, and the media labelled her a disgrace, even as she continued to arouse sympathy in the occupied nation.
After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, she received offers for many different positions, such as ambassador to Japan or mayor of the capital Prague, but she ultimately accepted the position of advisor to Václav Havel, a playwright who was a political prisoner before the Velvet Revolution and president after the revolution.
In August 1993, Josef Odložil, Věra’s ex-husband, died after a fight with his son Martin, who was sentenced to four years in prison. Věra had suffered from depression for 15 years after the incident.
In 2015, about a year before her death, she wrote an open letter to the Czech public, appealing for solidarity during the refugee crisis, which was received controversially.
In 2024, the controversial artist David Černý created a moving contortionist sculpture based on real photographs of Věra Čáslavská, and the work was first exhibited as a landmark at the Czech House in La Villette Park on the occasion of the 2024 Summer Olympics in France. Later, the statue was placed in Prague.
The over 30 foot (9 meter) high gimbal gyroscope allows slow rotation around three axes of the Cartesian coordinate system is powered by servomotors controlled by a complex program and casts reflections on the surrounding buildings.
The sculpture is in the colors of the Czech tricolor (white, red and blue in this order), but due to the mobility of the statue, the sequence of the colors depends on the current configuration and the angle of view, so it can sometimes paradoxically resemble the Russian tricolor (white, blue and red in this order).
The larger-than-life mannequins depict contortionist positions such as a splits or backbend, which most people cannot do — yet almost anyone can learn them! One can achieve great flexibility if they start training at least one hour every day during their pre-teen years at the latest. That is, if they start stretching exercises a few years before growth stops and the more time they spend in flexed positions, the better their body adapts to them. Those who start later can also become contortionists, but will probably never be able to do oversplits or triple fold backbends.
