The National Museum of the Czech Republic has received a donation of the gold medal won by Czechoslovak Olympic discus thrower Olga Fikotová-Connolly and will display it for the first time in history

The donation also includes her gold Olympic medal from Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, and today’s ceremonial handover was attended by Michal Lukeš, Director General of the National Museum of the Czech Republic; Nicholas Merrick, U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic; and the daughters of the Czechoslovak Olympian. The gold Olympic medal has never been exhibited before. Only now will this exceptional artifact be permanently displayed for the first time, starting this June in the New Building of the National Museum as part of the History of the 20th Century exhibition.

The story of this Olympic legend transcended the Iron Curtain when Olga Fikotová-Connolly won the discus throw at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. It was there that she met American hammer thrower Harold Connolly, also an Olympic champion. Their relationship became a symbol of hope during the Cold War, as they managed to obtain permission to marry despite the political conditions of the time and subsequently left Czechoslovakia legally.

Although Olga Fikotová-Connolly had hoped to continue representing Czechoslovakia, she was not allowed to compete at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, which she took very hard. Despite the rumors, she never refused to represent her native country. She eventually decided to compete for the United States and participated in the Games in 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972. At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, she was chosen as the flag bearer for the U.S. delegation.

In addition to her athletic career, she was involved in teaching, including at the University of California, as well as health education, social work, ecology, human rights, and women’s equality. She was also active in the organization Another Mother for Peace, which opposed the Vietnam War. In 2008, she received the main award from the Czech Fair Play Club of the Czech Olympic Committee.

Following her death in 2024, thanks to the initiative of the then Consul General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles, Jaroslav Olša Jr., a documentation project was undertaken, resulting in the decision to transfer part of her estate—including three extensive scrapbooks, photo albums, and small personal items, such as a record—to the collections of the National Museum of the Czech Republic, where it will be professionally preserved and presented to the public.

“The acquisition of Olga Fikotová-Connolly’s estate, including her gold Olympic medal, represents an extraordinary addition to our collection. These are not merely valuable artifacts, but a comprehensive testament to one of the most powerful stories in Czech sports and modern Czech history. I thank her family for making it possible for this story to symbolically return home and be preserved here at the National Museum of the Czech Republic,” says Michal Lukeš, Director General of the National Museum of the Czech Republic.

Items from the estate of Olga Fikotová-Connolly will expand the collections of the National Museum’s Department of the History of Physical Education and Sport. The department is one of the world’s longest-running institutions dedicated to documenting the history of sport and physical education. The collections currently consist of approximately 48,000 three-dimensional objects and 80,000 photographs, and also include an extensive library of historical and contemporary specialized literature and periodicals. The department’s collections are closely linked thematically with the Archive of Physical Education and Sport, which is part of the National Museum’s Archives. The collections contain numerous items documenting the activities of many prominent figures in Czech sports, the Olympic movement, and the Sokol movement, including, for example, the founders of the Czech Olympic Committee Jiří Guth-Jarkovský, Josef Rössler-Ořovský, Emil and Dana Zátopek, the founders of Sokol Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner, and many others.