Reply to "Capturing a country through sport: The crossovers"

Former Member

Otto Jelinek

A long, hard, strange trip it’s been for the athlete turned politician turned diplomat who, along with his sister, Maria, was one of the first brilliant Canadian figure skating pairs.

His family fled Czechoslovakia when the communist takeover nationalized his father’s business in 1948, eventually settling Canada.

He and Maria took the skating world by storm, winning the 1961 world championships and finishing fourth at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley.

It was a solid impact on the sporting fabric of the country but not his last one. Jelinek not only served as an MP but he was Minister of State for Fitness and Amateur Sport, the minister responsible for multiculturalism, before the circle was completed in 2013, when he was named ambassador to the Czech Republic.

6/30/1711:40 PM

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