[2] In 1952, he won the Czechoslovak championship at both 800 and 1500 metres and was selected to run the latter distance at the Olympics in Helsinki,[1] where he survived the heats but went out in the semi-finals.

[3] Late in October 1952, he set a new world record at 1000 metres in Stará Boleslav, running 2:21.2 to better Olle Åberg's time by 0.1 seconds.

[4] Jungwirth continued improving and won his only international medal at the 1954 European Championships in Bern, where he was third behind Roger Bannister and Gunnar Nielsen with a time of 3:45.4.

[4][6] A week later in London, he was the first Czechoslovak to run a four-minute mile;[7] however, his time of 3:59.1 was only good enough for third place[5] while the winner, Derek Ibbotson, ran a new world record 3:57.2.

[4][7] Jungwirth suffered from health problems in 1958[1] and was 8th at the European Championships, even though his time of 3:44.4 was a second faster than his bronze medal performance in 1954.