Charles University hockey players, the UK Kings Prague, defeated rivals the ČVUT Engineers Prague representing 4:3 in the annual Battle of the Universities. The match was played in the Holešovice Sports Hall.

The traditional Rector's Sports Day at Charles University offered a prime opportunity for competing students to measure sport skills and get to know each other across faculties. Teachers also were also able to take part at facilities in Prague, Hradec Králové and Plzeň.

Czech baseball experienced its own smaller version of “Nagano ‘98” over the last few weeks. For the first time in history, the national team made it to the World Baseball Classic (WBC). Pitcher Lukáš Ercoli, a graduate of sports management at Charles University, helped the Czechs advance.

Sports associations that organise championship competitions in water rescue sports, pitting top swimmers in lifesaving disciplines such as manikin, relay, beach sprint and surf race. CU student and champion swimmer Dominika Geržová knows a thing or two about that.

Charles University’s hockey team successfully defended its title from last year in the Battle of the Universities. In the final this time, the team defeated players from the Czech Technical University in Prague. The triumph is the team’s ninth in the traditional competition of Prague universities.

Jan Exner has taken part in more Olympic Games than many, first as a volunteer and later as a lawyer for the Czech Olympic Committee. He was in PyeongChang and Tokyo, but he won’t be headed to Beijing; he discovered he enjoys teaching at university most of all.

The TV hockey series Lajna (Line) starring Jiří Langmajer as a despotic head coach at a crossroads in his life, proved popular each week among viewers online and ran three seasons. What you might not know is that a number of Charles University students were extras on the show as players on the team.

Football is not just Messi and Ronaldo. Many exceptional players over the years emerged even from modest conditions in Czechia. Jan Kozel, a young football coach and CU graduate, says famous Czechs athletes should be role models for up-and-coming talent today. And not just from the world of soccer.

Along with ice hockey, Czech universities can now compete in an additional leagues as of this academic year. The university leagues include football, futsal, basketball, floorball and volleyball. How did they come together and what are the ambitions of Charles University’s teams when it comes to different sports?

Charles University student Ondřej Gemov spends a lot of time in the pool: “I haven’t left the water since I was six months old,” he jokes. Recent years have seen him clinch medals and spots on the podium. At 22, Gemov is one of the Czech Republic’s most promising swimming talents. When he has time, he follows fashion and Czech rap.

Over the last few years, more and more young people in the Czech Republic have taken up longboarding, a hobby and sport related to skateboarding but different in many respects. Longboards, as the name suggests, utilise a longer deck but feel very different, offering a more stable ride on softer polyurethane wheels.

Three brothers, all slalom canoeists; two have competed for the Czech Republic. That's the Hegers. Vojtěch, the middle brother, clinched a spot in canoe slalom for the Czech Republic in the upcoming Olympics. But he won’t be heading to Tokyo this summer.

“Is there anything nicer than walking out onto the course at 6 am and taking in the sight of the dew-covered grass?” psychologist Lenka Šulová of the Faculty of Arts wonders. Fifteen years ago she fell in love with golf, a sport she cannot imagine being without in her free time or on travels in Europe and further abroad.

Václav Šňupárek is a Master’s student at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport who competed in many sports before becoming a professional cyclist. He is a member of Team Novo Nordisk, a team unlike any other whose athletes all have Type-1 diabetes. 

He has degrees from three universities, worked for a couple of years for the Office of the Government and lectures at CU’s Faculty of Law. His next ambition, though, is decidedly non-academic: he wants to fight in mixed martial arts (MMA). Meet Petr Agha.