“We went to the Olympics as country boys, we didn't know anything, what sort of action it was. Well we watched it with our eyes on top of our heads and it was nice. So I experienced three Olympics, but this first one - not that we won there - but it was so… it was the first Olympics after the war… the second one was in London… the second after the war, in Finland, so it was kind of sporty, as the Finns are sport-oriented. Well, we raced there at sea, so we weren't used to it. Because there were big waves. So during the racing the bay was dammed by ships the Finns, so they set the course that one ship was anchored next to the other. It ought to have been better. Well, we came there, we tried it in practice, and when the American ship of four rowers was passing, there were guys with large shoulders, they went across the ship like that, and we were just little boys compared to them. And so we thought, 'Well, we can't succeed here.' We won the first race, then in the semi-finals. And in that finale we came across the Swiss. They were well prepared. So, we defeated them, too.”
“We won the Olympics in 1952 and the European Championship in Denmark in 1952. And what happened… there were no lions on those emblems and the stars and alike began. And we were the first… rowers were the first trip to the Western Europe that year. They haven't allowed anyone in yet, and we were there. And Captain Havlicek was the leader. There were about four secret policemen with us, I have them photographed somewhere too. And that Havlíček did nothing but when we arrived, he sat and counted. And when he finished counting, he was happy.”
“The war came, I started attending school in Třeboň. During that was we were moved around here and there. Then we went to school only to a pub or a theater; there were only five or six classes and the teachers gave us tasks and sent us home. Father was in Germany during the war, so the job he was doing, or the man's job, was more mine. Just like when we were digging up potatoes. Or we had such a field rented, where potatoes and grain were grown. And then my father returned from Germany and construction began. It was rebuilt again. The attic was made in the house. He was building a workshop, so we worked all the time.”
Jan Jindra was born on March 6, 1932 in Trebon. After 1948 he was trained as a locksmith, then he graduated from a two-year secondary technical school in Czech Budweiser. Since his youth he devoted himself to rowing on the Třeboň pond Svět. In 1951 he became champion of the Republic in the category of four with a helmsman for the first time. Although the crew did not even have a coach, a year later surprisingly won the Olympic Games in Helsinki. In the years 1953-54 he graduated from the army sports army (later Dukla) and after military service he joined the machine shop of the Czechoslovak state forest, where he worked until retirement. In 1953 and 1956 he added to the collection of achievements gold medals from the European Championship and in 1956, and 1960 represented Czechoslovakia at the Olympics in Melbourne and Rome again. After the Olympic Games in Rome, where he won the bronze medal, ended his rowing carrier.
