Rudolf Burkert

An ethnic German from Polubný, Rudolf Burkert won the 1927 world title in the Nordic combined, albeit in the absence of the strong Finnish and Norwegian competitors. The next year, he became Czechoslovakia’s first Winter Olympic medallist, when he won a bronze medal in the ski jump. Burkert’s final success came in 1933, winning a silver medal at the World Championships in the ski jump. He was forced to retired the next year, due to a foot injury. This also protected him from military service during World War II, when he was considered a German citizen due to his ethnicity. After the war, he was expelled from his home and forced to live elsewhere, and he emigrated to Germany in 1968, and lived there until his death.