{"id":178532,"date":"2020-07-03T07:54:15","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T07:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=178532"},"modified":"2020-07-03T07:54:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T07:54:15","slug":"jiri-jezek-i-left-professional-cycling-i-left-races-but-ive-never-left-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/07\/03\/jiri-jezek-i-left-professional-cycling-i-left-races-but-ive-never-left-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Ji\u0159\u00ed Je\u017eek: \u201cI left Professional Cycling, I left Races, but I\u2019ve Never Left Cycling.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

A truly special guest joined Laura Meseguer in our digital studio on the occasion of the eighth #Ride2Unite livestream, the world\u2019s most successful Para-cyclist, Czech Ji\u0159\u00ed Je\u017eek. Ji\u0159\u00ed\u2019s road to fame and fulfilling of his dreams was kicked off by something unexpected \u2013 traffic accident turned his life upside down; for the worse and then for the better. We believe you\u2019ll find inspiration, motivation, candour, openess and a few valuable insights in Ji\u0159\u00ed\u2019s recounting of his present life and past career. Enjoy a few lines of the eighth stream we would like to highlight below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As mentioned above, Ji\u0159\u00ed didn\u2019t have an easy or ideal start of his career as an athlete. Ji\u0159\u00ed Je\u017eek lost his right leg below the knee when he was 11 and a truck hit him when he was crossing the street but today, he considers it a wakeup call to finally realizing his dreams. By the age of 20, he had taken up competitive cycling as a hobby and started to emerge as one of the world\u2019s best Para-cyclists only five years later. Then came the major successes, championships won and Paralympic golden medals collected at 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, and 2012 London \u2013 11 in total. The first victory brought him the attention and funds of sponsors so he was able to leave his job as a prosthetics technician and become a cycling pro fulltime. At the height of his career, he was taking on able-bodied athletes and averaging 27-30 thousand kilometres on a bike a year. Just recently, he\u2019s been recognized as one of the greatest athletes of the 21st century and deservedly so. Je\u017eek announced his retirement from professional cycling in October 2017 but is still active as a cyclist, coach and cycling ambassador. Furthermore, Ji\u0159\u00ed is a former captain of the Czech National Paralympic Team.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CCG2failwr-\/<\/p>\n

Find out more about Ji\u0159\u00ed in the previous article<\/a> we published.<\/p>\n

When Ji\u0159\u00ed Je\u017eek connected, he joined Laura with his notoriously sunny disposition despite the initial technical hitches. The livestream caught him in the middle of a busy house moving with his entire family so Laura jokingly remarked that this might be the worst time to have this interview but Ji\u0159\u00ed replied in his characteristic unbothered fashion: \u201cThat\u2019s life. Thank you for the break.\u201d<\/p>\n

After clearing up the situation surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak in his home country, the Czech Republic, Ji\u0159\u00ed stated that he was happy to be riding outside with friends again and that the course of the last few months wasn\u2019t that bad regarding Czech cyclists but it was certainly a challenge for anyone. \u201cIt was quite difficult for everyone, not only the athletes, and especially for the elderly. I\u2019ve been helping with my bike and going shopping for those who couldn\u2019t around my house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before their delved into Ji\u0159\u00ed\u2019s rich career, Laura wanted to know how he\u2019s been keeping busy since his official retirement in 2017. \u201cI left professional cycling, I left races, but I\u2019ve never left cycling. [\u2026] I try to ride a bike every day, I try to help the race\u2019s organizers, I like to visit the races, sometimes I promote them, I\u2019m the man with the microphone at the races, I try to be a motivation to young riders.\u201d Ji\u0159\u00ed further confessed that he considers himself a social rider and truly enjoys cycling with friends \u2013 he\u2019s done with training, with races (maybe just for fun) and he just rides his bike. \u201cBeing an ambassador for We Love Cycling is something that keeps me in the cycling family and business so I\u2019m really happy that I\u2019m one of the promoters in the world and I\u2019m trying to speak about how positive cycling is for your health and for your brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jiri Jezek celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men’s individual C4 time trial road cycling finals at the Brands Hatch circuit in southern England, on September 5, 2012. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, Ji\u0159\u00ed\u2019s life curve is so unique it always pops up during interviews. \u201cAs a young kid, I wanted to be a professional football player. [\u2026] I played for the best Prague team but, to be honest, my motivation for being a football player was bigger than my talent. When I was 11 years old, I had bad luck when I was crossing a road. I ended up under a big truck and the result was that I woke up in the hospital without one leg. It was such a hard moment for me because I wanted to be a football player but at the same time I found out I couldn\u2019t be a football player anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ji\u0159\u00ed continues that he then started to think of a new way how to face his life because he wanted to go back to all beloved activities as soon as possible using a prosthetic. When he found out he can run again, he jumped right back into volleyball, basketball and others and stressed that every activity he was able to take on made his self-confidence and motivation stronger. \u201cSport helped me to find my way back to normal life in a big way.\u201d He\u2019s also glad that his never-give-up attitude sends a message to people struggling to stay active with disabilities and he also holds motivational sessions or speeches for those looking to find their way into sports.<\/p>\n

And who, ultimately, brought Ji\u0159\u00ed to Para-cycling? It was one of his patients back then when he was still making prostheses \u2013 by a stroke of luck, the first Czech Para-cyclist. They got talking and the rest is history, literally, as Ji\u0159\u00ed then went on to become the current world\u2019s best Para-cyclist and famous Paralympian.<\/p>\n

Catch up with the eighth #Ride2Unite livestream with Ji\u0159\u00ed Je\u017eek in its entirety above.<\/p>\n

For all the previous streams, head over to the We Love Cycling Instagram page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A truly special guest joined Laura Meseguer in our digital studio on the occasion of the eighth #Ride2Unite livestream, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":178534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4142],"tags":[4140,502,4170],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-178532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ride2unite","tag-ride2unite","tag-jiri-jezek","tag-laura-meseguer","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nJi\u0159\u00ed Je\u017eek: \u201cI left Professional Cycling, I left Races, but I\u2019ve Never Left Cycling.\u201d - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A truly special guest joined Laura Meseguer in our digital studio on the occasion of the eighth #Ride2Unite livestream, the world\u2019s most successful\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/07\/03\/jiri-jezek-i-left-professional-cycling-i-left-races-but-ive-never-left-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ji\u0159\u00ed Je\u017eek: \u201cI left Professional Cycling, I left Races, but I\u2019ve Never Left Cycling.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A truly special guest joined Laura Meseguer in our digital studio on the occasion of the eighth #Ride2Unite livestream, the world\u2019s most successful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/07\/03\/jiri-jezek-i-left-professional-cycling-i-left-races-but-ive-never-left-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-03T07:54:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/07\/Jiri-Jezek-CVR-profimedia-0535643302.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frantiska Blazkova\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/07\/03\/jiri-jezek-i-left-professional-cycling-i-left-races-but-ive-never-left-cycling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/07\/03\/jiri-jezek-i-left-professional-cycling-i-left-races-but-ive-never-left-cycling\/\",\"name\":\"Ji\u0159\u00ed Je\u017eek: \u201cI left Professional Cycling, I left Races, but I\u2019ve Never Left Cycling.\u201d - 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