A Love Story

Happy Valentine’s Day! Tonight I will be making a cheese board and chocolate fondue with my best girl friends who are also single and just hanging out; as God intended. Valentine’s Day isn’t my favorite holiday because of how cheesy all the couples get (you know who you are). But it’s always great to do something for and with the people you love, so I’m looking forward to fancy cheese and chocolate with my girls.

In my Olympic history class, we learn a lot about the political relations and undertones of the games. On Valentine’s Day, we followed a story of love between two athletes.

During the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games a lot was going on globally. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was dealing with international crises relevant to who was attending the games, like divided Germany, China and Taiwan, the Suez Cana crisis, and the Hungarian Revolution. Yet in the midst of all this, love blossomed.

Czech discus thrower Olga Fikotova came to the Olympics from behind the Iron curtain. She was a medical student and tremendous athlete who had already competed for Czechoslovakia on national handball and basketball teams. When she arrived at the Olympics she ran into U.S. Hammer Thrower Hal Connolly at the equipment shed. There, their love affair began. The two went for walks around Olympic Village and fell in love during the games. This was all well and good, except for the fact that they lived in two very different worlds. Olga returned to communist Czechoslovakia and Hal to democratic/capitalist U.S.A. But fear not, their love worked through a lot of red tape to see them married in Czechoslovakia and the two returned to U.S. to live.

But it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies after that. In the heat (or I guess..freezing?) of the Cold War, leaving a communist country was almost unheard of and considered defecting. Olga was no longer considered a Czech citizen, and could no longer compete for the Czech olympic team. No biggie, she can just be on the U.S. team now, right? Wrong. A lot of Olympic rules have changed over time, and the ability to claim and compete for multiple nationalities is one of them. The IOC had a rule that once you competed for one country’s national team at the Olympics, you could not represent another country at the games. Until Olga Fikotova Connolly. The IOC actually changed the rule because of Olga. Well, they only amended it to allow married women to compete for their husband’s country…but baby steps.

Yay, love! These two aren’t the only Olympic power couple, but they sure are one of the best love stories. She wrote her own version of the story for the Saturday Evening Post called Love Made me an American.