She held the record for the most individual gold medals (with 7) among all female athletes (not only gymnasts) in Olympic history as well until it was surpassed by swimmer Katie Ledecky in 2024 after 56 years.

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, she took this protest to the world stage by quietly looking down and away while the Soviet national anthem was played during the medal ceremonies for the balance beam and floor exercise event finals.

Born in Prague and originally a figure skater, Čáslavská debuted internationally in 1958 at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, winning a silver medal in the team event.

She first participated in the 1960 Summer Olympic Games, winning a silver medal with the Czechoslovak team, and then won bronze in the all around event at the 1961 European Championships.

She defended her all-around title and won additional gold medals on the floor, uneven bars and vault, as well as two silvers, for the team competition and balance beam.

She had publicly voiced her strong opposition to Soviet-style Communism and the Soviet invasion, and had signed Ludvik Vaculík's protest manifesto "Two Thousand Words" in the spring of 1968.

Consequently, to avoid being arrested, she left the training facility in the town of Šumperk with the help of Zdeněk Zerzáň, chief of Jeseníky Mountain Rescue Service.

She spent the weeks leading up to the Olympics hiding in a remote mountain hut at Vřesová studánka, and was only granted permission to travel to Mexico City at the last minute.

All of this occurred on the heels of another very controversial judging decision that cost Čáslavská the gold on beam, instead awarding the title to her Soviet rival Natalia Kuchinskaya.

Clearly disheartened and angered by the politics that favored the USSR, she protested during both medal ceremonies by quietly turning her head down and away during the playing of the Soviet national anthem.

[12][13] After return from Mexico in the beginning of 1980s she shared an office with Emil Zátopek where the two former sport stars and present-day outcasts were given meaningless administrative roles.

In addition to the Olympic Order, she was awarded a 1989 Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Trophy by UNESCO and was noted at the ceremony for her "exemplary dignity".

[22] In 1993, her son and ex-husband were involved in an altercation with Martin allegedly punching Josef; he fell to the floor and struck his head, leading to his death after 35 days.

Čáslavská eventually overcame her depression (which she had been fighting for about 15 years), cancel all medication and returned to both social and sports lives, coaching younger gymnasts.

She was describing her new-found energy as “miraculous” and had recovered enough joie de vivre to delight Mexican spectators, as a guest at a gymnastics event in Acapulco, by demonstrating spontaneously that at 70 she could still do the splits.