Tibor Puha

* 1958

  • "I remember we got there, we had a day off and one of our colleagues... I was from Olomouc, and he was a waiter there, I would never have guessed he was from Yugoslavia. He married there and lived next to Munich, knowing, we were there, he visited us, like, come on guys, I'll take you to the city. We were in Olympian village up in the tower, in restaurants, we've seen and tasted everything. When we returned, as soldiers, we were always supposed to visit the politruk. In Olomouc, he called us, Tibor, you shall meet with this and that person. So I went to some colonel, and he was like, Tibor how was it? And I said, good. And what was there? I said, nothing. And he kept asking, where we were. And I replied nowhere, we had a day off and we strolled through the city and so on. And then he said, you were there also. And I asked, where? They knew we were in some Spanish restaurant, on the tower, everything. Either one of us was, or someone deployed by StB watched us... they knew everything, what we ate, what've seen... everything"

  • "I won the first match, automatically a medal. And I boxed the second match and it was an Italian, he was already well known, better pancratist. A balanced match, I was supposed to win. I lost 3: 2. But the hell broke loose in that hall in Varna, people started to throw things, whistle, because they unrightfully gave the other one. Those people cause messed there, as far as I know, then I escaped to the locker room and cried, of course, I cried because it was an undeserved loss. I have never seen so many roses in my life as then- people threw gigantic roses, the organises gave me around 50. I cried because I didn't know what to do. You shall contest the decision, they said. But protest is pointless, you have to pay 50 marks or dollars for it, and you still wouldn't win. And then when we were returning to the hotel together with the Hungarians, the referee came to me and said Tibor, please, don't be angry with me, but you couldn't have given it to you since your (Czechoslovakia) also didn't give it to us. The frictions were strong."

  • "Yes, I was an Olympian, also in 1980, I was prepared for the Olympics. And I didn't get there and that's why I got stuck, I was pissed- I still wanted to go to the Olympics. Maybe that also helped me, so I started training even more. That... in four years I'll try again, it was supposed to be in Los Angeles, in America. In the meantime, I got married in 1981, that stimulated me even more, women are wonderful, I guess. And since then, I was winning the national championships. Then I went for European, world, Europe, I was preparing for the Olympics. And unfortunately, two months before the Olympics, we had been told that we could not go there because the security could not be provided there for us, that was the official version. So we didn't go. We were all called to Prague and explained to us, that we cannot go, but instead of real Olympics we'll have "socialist Olympics".

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Boxer Tibor Puha - a medalist whose joy from sport was ruined by the ban to travel to the Olympics

Tibor Puha at the time when he was boxing.
Tibor Puha at the time when he was boxing.
zdroj: Archív Tibor Puha

Tibor Puha was born on October 18, 1958, in Nový Jičín, Moravia. His parents moved with him to the village of Horné Mýto, Dunajská Streda district. He grew up there and enrolled in boxing at the age of 14. He also trained in Dunajská Streda and Galanta. His role model was the legendary Ján Zachara. In 1977 he went to war, to the military department of Dukla Olomouc, where he started a professional career as a boxer. Between 1981 and 1987, he managed to win the title of Czechoslovak champion up to six times. He participated in the World Championship in Munich in 1982. A year later, he experienced the greatest success of his career, when he won a bronze medal at the European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria. When the communist government banned athletes from travelling to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, he resigned from the national team. He ended his boxing career in 1987.