Pavel Schenk

At school Pavel Schenk took up gymnastics and played football, basketball, and table tennis, before settling on volleyball when he was 15-years-old. Schenk went on to become one of the best Czechoslovak practitioners of the sport of his time, winning medals at the Olympics, as well as the World and European Championships. After starting with the youth team of Spartak ZJŠ in 1959, he soon moved up to the senior league, joining Dukla Kolín one year later. In 1961 he won his first national title, before moving to Zbrojovka Brno, where he won five more (1965, 1967, 1969–71). Schenk also had international success with Zbrojovka, winning the European Championship with the club in 1968 and 1972, as well as silver in both 1970 and 1971.

In 1962 Schenk won silver with the Czechoslovakia national team at the Volleyball World Championships in the Soviet Union. Four years later, and with home advantage, the team went one better to take home gold. He made his Olympic début in 1964, where the team won silver, only missing out on gold due to having an inferior points margin ratio to the USSR team. Schenk played in all nine matches for the Czechoslovak team, finishing as their leading scorer with 54 points. Four years later at the Mexico City Games the team finished third to win bronze. Schenk made his third and final Olympic appearance in München in 1972; however, the Czechoslovak team only managed to finish sixth. Towards the end of his playing career Schenk also won silver with the national team at the European Championships in 1967 and 1971.

Schenk played in more than 400 matches for Czechoslovakia but was forced to retire after suffering an injury in 1973. He then turned to coaching, working at ČH Bratislava for 17 seasons. Under his leadership the team won the Czechoslovak volleyball league on three occasions (1978–79, 1981), in addition to having success in European club competitions. He also returned to the national team, coaching them at the 1980 Moskva Olympics. In recognition for his contributions to the sport Schenk was inducted into both the Czech Volleyball Hall of Fame and the Slovak Volleyball Hall of Fame.