Marek Veselý is a glider aerobatic pilot and the Junior World Champion in the Advanced category at the 2024 World Glider Aerobatic Championship in Oschatz, Germany. Along with his gold medal as the absolute junior world champion, he also won a bronze medal in the overall ranking without age limits. Marek's performances in 2024 significantly contributed to the success of the Czech national team. In addition to gold team medals in 2022 and 2023, the team secured a silver medal in 2024. Marek is unable to attend today as he is currently completing an internship in Narromine, Australia, working as a gliding instructor and towplane pilot after finishing his university studies. He could not have pursued high-level air sports without his family's support, so his mother and sister are here to represent him today.

Jan Pavlík, Miloslav Cink, Lukáš Kříž: At the European Championship in Tábor, the standard-class glider team delivered an outstanding performance. Jan Pavlík from Aeroclub Křižanov, currently the best Czech glider pilot, finished second, Miloslav Cink from Aeroclub Plzeň-Letkov took third place, and junior pilot Lukáš Kříž from Aeroclub Křižanov finished fourth. The team demonstrated remarkable unity, securing the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places out of a total of 33 competitors in this class—an extraordinary achievement in an individual sport. Jan Pavlík and Miloslav Cink are seasoned competitors with consistent results, while Lukáš Kříž earned his spot at the European Gliding Championship by winning the Junior European Championship, immediately establishing himself among the elite.

Marek Velát was born in 1996 in Havlíčkův Brod. He was inspired to fly by his uncle, who was a military pilot, commercial pilot, and flight instructor. However, Marek did not initially consider flying professionally, especially after his eyesight deteriorated in the fifth grade and he was prescribed glasses, which ended any theoretical considerations of professional flying. However, he found his way to the airfield—at 14, he fell in love with the community and life at the Havlíčkův Brod airfield, where he started flight training a year later. He began competing very soon—immediately after obtaining his ultralight pilot license, his instructor, Ondřej Paclík, ordered him to participate in a navigation competition. A few years have passed, and Marek Velát is now a multiple world champion. Oh, and his eyesight? Since undergoing surgery this winter—partly for flying reasons—it is now perfect.

David Černý with Jan Havlík: Flying has fascinated David since childhood. A professional pilot with over twenty years of experience, he not only makes a living flying a private jet for eight passengers but also excels in air navigation and precision flying. His talent was first recognised in 2006 when he was awarded the title of Best Young Pilot at the World Championship. As an aircraft captain, he perfectly combines precision with safety and the comfort of private air travel. He feels at home in the skies—turning flying into both an art and an adventure. Over the years, he has accumulated numerous achievements on both the national and international stage.
He has been crowned Czech national champion three times. In 2024, together with his teammate Jan Havlík, he became the world champion in the Air Navigation Race.

Hynek Tábor was born on July 3, 1975, in Přerov. He completed his first parachute jump in 1990 at the Hořice airfield. As a talented athlete, he first joined LSC Příbram and, in the Autumn of 1993, became a member of the national team Dukla in Prostějov. He has completed over 14,000 jumps and holds more than 30 medals from World and European Championships. His best individual result so far was third place in accuracy landing and combined events at the 2010 World Championship in Montenegro. He has also won seven titles in team accuracy landing and combined events (three consecutive victories since 2018). Currently, he holds the world record for the lowest total centimetres in team accuracy landing over eight rounds.

Milan Klement was born in 1981 and spent his first three years in Havlíčkova Borová. His family then moved to Přibyslav. He has loved aviation since childhood, likely inheriting his passion from his ancestors, who were pilots and even flew during World War II. Becoming a pilot was his biggest dream. Instead of reading adventure novels by Verne or May, he studied technical and historical aviation literature. He built plastic models as well as flying motorized model airplanes, which he flew at the Přibyslav airfield. Here, he finally experienced real flying in aeroclub aircraft, but surprisingly, this type of flying did not fully captivate him.

One day, however, a powered paraglider appeared over the airfield, and Milan Klement was mesmerized. The compactness, versatility, and freedom associated with powered paragliding fascinated him. Since then, he has achieved many domestic and international successes, and thanks to him, Přibyslav has become one of the most important hubs for powered paragliding in the country.

Václavík, Vachtl, Kricnar, Garbier, Hadaš, Martinková: It would be hard to find a national sports team with such a diverse mix of athletes. Competing together for the Czech Republic in paragliding accuracy landing is a veteran approaching sixty years old, alongside a competitor who was a teenager not long ago. The team also includes the descendant of a well-known paragliding family, a university student, and a young mother with a small child—who happens to be with a competitor from the Slovenian team.
These athletes hail from various Czech cities, including Pardubice, Plzeň, Rokycany, Ústí nad Labem, Police nad Metují, and České Budějovice. Yet, their journey to this relatively young paragliding discipline was similar. They were drawn by the freedom and adventure of flying a non-motorized paraglider. Most of them tried cross-country competitions before discovering accuracy landing. The combination of precise piloting, concentration, adrenaline, and an amazing team atmosphere captured their hearts forever.

Vojtěch Kornhöfer, Anna Kornhöferová, Jan Zajíc and team manager František Zajíc: The junior national team (under 18) continued the success of their predecessors in the traditional and prestigious F1A free flight model category, following in the footsteps of Czech competitors who secured 1st and 2nd place at the World Championships in the previous decade. At this year's World Championship, the team members achieved individual placements of 4th, 5th, and 20th.The Czech Modeling Association nominated the team for the 2024 Air Sports Athlete of the Year award for their second-place finish at the World Championship in North Macedonia in the F1A Free Flight category.

Vladimír Ryneš, Vladimír Ryneš ml., Jiří Brand and team manager David Kopal: This F4H scale model national team has long been among the world's elite. They placed third at the 2014 World Championship and won the title in 2018. Team manager David Kopal secured an individual world champion title in 2014. At this year’s World Championship, the team members achieved individual placements of 3rd, 4th, and 8th. The Czech Modeling Association nominated the team for the 2024 Air Sports Athlete of the Year award for their second-place finish at the World Championship in Romania in the F4H Scale Model category.

Viktorie Tržilová aged 25, from the Rocket Model Club Krupka has been a permanent member of the Czech Republic's national team since her junior years. She has won five medals in junior categories and seven in senior categories at the World and European Championships. In 2018 and 2019, she was named the best rocket modeler in the world. She was nominated for the 2024 Air Sports Athlete of the Year award by the Czech Modeling Association for her second-place finish at the European Championship in Serbia in the S9A Gyrocopter category.

Čestmír Zítka is from Northern Moravia. He was highly talented in sports from a young age, and after starting high school in Prague, he began his career as a sport parachutist at the Hořovice Aeroclub. He completed his basic course and first jumps in the 1982 season. He continued training in sport and military parachuting at the local aeroclub, with jumps complemented by rigorous physical preparation and additional sports activities.

In 1986, after a demanding selection process, he joined the Dukla Prostějov elite sports center for his mandatory military service. There, he fully developed his athletic potential and remained a member of the Czechoslovak (later Czech) national parachuting team until 2015.

Over his career, he has performed more than 13,000 parachute jumps and earned 28 medals from World and European Championships.
After retiring from top-level competition and leaving Dukla Prostějov, he transitioned to coaching and, since 2018, has been the head coach of the Czech women’s national parachuting team in classical disciplines. He has excelled in this role, leading Czech female parachutists back onto the winners' podium after several years of absence. One of the most significant recent achievements is the European Championship title from Ravenna, Italy, in 2023, along with silver medals at the 2024 World Championship.
Beyond coaching top female athletes, he also focuses on transitioning junior parachutists into classical disciplines, ensuring the future success of Czech women’s parachuting.
Outside of air sports, he is an avid motocross rider and follows a variety of other sports.

Skydiving

Václav Šorel
Born in Kladno, Václav Šorel, a graduate of the Secondary Industrial School of Civil Engineering, was captivated by aviation from an early age. He began as an aeromodeler and later became a glider pilot. However, he became widely known as a key popularizer of Czechoslovak aviation.

His literary career began at the AVIA aircraft factory, where he started contributing to aviation magazines. At AVIA, he met his later collaborator and friend František Kobík, and together they formed the legendary creative duo "ŠOK" (Šorel - Kobík), sometimes known as "KOŠ." Their famous comic books, such as Vzpoura mozků (Revolt of the Brains), Galaxie, and Tvrz (The Fortress), are widely recognized.

Beyond comics, Václav Šorel authored aviation nonfiction, novels, science fiction, and hobby literature. He created numerous paper models and wrote scripts for Czech Radio. His latest work was the acclaimed book Vzduch je naše moře (The Air is Our Sea), a history of Czech and Czechoslovak aviation presented in comic form.
In 2022, the Municipal Library of Prague 18, Letňany, was renamed the Václav Šorel Library in his honor.