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In-Depth Information
they are Catholic, and Slovakia, where the figure is around 70%. Protestant and other
denominations make up another 5% or so.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly why Czechs, on balance, seem to shun religion, though
going back as far as Jan Hus in the 15th century, one can trace a national scepticism
towards organised faith. It was Hus, after all, who railed against the excesses of the
Catholic Church in his day.
In addition, Catholicism has always been bound up to some degree with the Austri-
an conquest and overzealous efforts by the Jesuits in the 16th and 17th centuries to
convert the local population. In more recent times, the former communist government
went out of its way to discourage organised religion, going so far as to lock up priests
and close down churches.
There are anecdotal signs of a modest rebirth in faith. More and more couples are
choosing to be married in a church, and parents are increasingly opting to baptise their
children. Also, interest appears to be growing in more esoteric and spiritual beliefs.
TENNIS, ANYONE?
In addition to ice hockey, Czechs over the years have excelled at international
tennis, a source of no small measure of national pride and the reason why
nearly every park or field of green in the country will have a tennis court nearby.
Indeed, two of the sport's all-time greatest players, Ivan Lendl (b 1960) and Mar-
tina Navrátilová (b 1956), honed their craft here before moving to the big stage.
Lendl dominated the men's circuit for much of the 1980s, winning a total of 11
Grand Slam tennis titles and participating in some 19 finals matches (a record
only broken in recent years by Roger Federer).
Navrátilová's feats, if anything, are even more impressive. In the late 1970s
and throughout the 1980s, she won some 18 Grand Slam singles titles, including
a whopping nine victories at Wimbledon, the last coming in 1990. At one point
she won six Grand Slam singles titles in a row.
Czechs continue to do well in the international game. The current darling is
Petra Kvitová (b 1990), who won Wimbledon in 2011 and was ranked third in the
world as this topic went to press.
