František Erben

A lifelong gymnast and member of the Sokol movement, František Erben got a taste of international competition at the 1900 Paris Olympics. Representing Bohemia, then a part of the Austria-Hungary, under the banner of the “Bohemian Committee for the Olympic Games”, he placed joint-32nd in the individual all-around. He had far more success at the 1907 World Championships, where he took gold in the high bar and the pommel horse, as well as with the team, and bronze in the all-around and parallel bars.

In 1909 Erben moved to St. Petersburg to work as a physical education teacher with the military, but he also won silver medals in the high bar and with the team at the World Championships that year, in addition to bronze in the rings. In 1911, he again took home a gold medal with the Bohemian team at the Worlds. At the onset of World War I, he joined the Czechoslovak Legion and eventually returned to his homeland, which became part of Czechoslovakia after the conflict. During the interwar period, he worked as a teacher and published a magazine on physical activity. In 1942, he was among those executed by the Nazis in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.