Růžena Košťálová took up canoeing at a young age and quickly became proficient at the sport. Over the course of her career she won 12 Czechoslovakian national titles, as well as a silver medal in the K-2 500 at the 1948 Canoe Sprint World Championships, alongside non-Olympian Marta Pavlisová. These World Championships were the first which took place after WWII ended and were also held in London for non-olympic disciplines. At the Olympics she participated in the K-1 500, the inaugural woman’s canoeing event at the Games. She won her heat in the opening round, albeit with a time slower than all other competitors in the second heat, and in the final she could only manage fifth. She retired from active competition shortly thereafter, having married a doctor, and, in 1968, moved to Switzerland and many years later back to her birth town Poděbrady in the Czech Republic.
Czechoslovakia
Czechia