Winter Olympics 2010

This year´s Czech Republic Olympic team is bigger than ever: the country will be sending a total of 93 athletes to compete for medals in Vancouver from February 12 to 28. Some sport journalists have even said that this year´s team is the strongest the country has sent to the games yet.

Let´s take a look at some of the Czech sportsmen and sportswomen. Who are the hot bets among this year´s medal contenders?

One athlete to watch is 22-year-old speed skater Martina Sáblíková who currently holds the world record at 5000m. She´s the one Czech athlete that many say is the most likely to bring home the gold.

Another strong member of this year´s Olympic team is Lukáš Bauer, the country´s biggest skiing star who recently won the Tour de Ski series for the second time. He´s also previously won a gold medal in the classic 50 km cross country skiing discipline, along with a silver medal in Turin´s Winter Olympics four years ago.

Another Czech athlete that carries big hopes is Šárka Záhrobská, who has won medals in all of the last three world championships in the discipline of Alpine Skiing, Ladies´ Slalom. This year, the 25-year-old will compete in the Giant Slalom, the Super G and the Super Combined.

Of course, matches of the men´s ice hockey team are bound to be amongst this year´s most significant Czech sporting events. The Czech team won bronze in 2006, the last time it won gold was 14 years ago, in 1996. Team members are mostly players of North America´s National Hockey League and the Kontinental Hockey League, based in Russia. Probably the best know team member is Jaromír Jágr, considered one of the best jockey players of all time. He is a member of this year´s team and plays the forward position.

In 2006, the Czech team won one gold, two silver and one bronze medal in Turin´s Winter Olympics. The most successful Czech performance in the Winter Olympics was in 1968, in Sarajevo, but sport experts say this year may well be an opportunity to change history.

Vancouver is nine hours behind Prague, so an event shown at noon would be televised here at 9 pm.

You can catch the Olympic games on CT2 and CT4 as well as on Eurosport. TV Nova will be showing Olympic related coverage.