She ended her life with an embarrassment of honours, including the Olympic Order, the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play prize and the Czech Order of Merit; but she wore her past glories lightly. One friend, the publisher Tomáš Dimter, was surprised to find no trace of her achievements when he first visited her house. “When I asked her where all her medals were, she just waved her hand and pointed to a wooden shed in her garden. There were hundreds of medals and trophies, secured with a simple latch.”
She remained a woman of stubborn principle, speaking out on behalf of refugees. “She was a lifelong fighter,” said her friend Karel Engel, a former Olympic wrestler. “She never reconciled herself with injustice.”