From running records to helping students get scholarship

Sport has been a part of her life since kindergarten. Adéla Hofmannová was a promising athlete and a protégé of the world record holder in the 800-meter run, Jarmila Kratochvílová. However, in the Czech environment, combining top-level sport and studies is very difficult, and high school students already have to make a difficult choice whether to embark on an unpredictable sports career or choose a university degree. However, the overseas system allows such a connection and offers athletically gifted students a suitable environment to have more time to make this decision. After graduating from the University of Utah, Adéla returned to the Czech Republic, where she now heads the organization USA Sport & Study. The organization helps Czech athletes obtain scholarships at American universities.

What was your first contact with sport?

I have been in contact with sports practically since kindergarten, where I did karate. My parents never forced my brother and me into sports, but we lived in the village, spent the whole day outside, so we found our way to it ourselves. My winter holidays are associated with skiing, I was already three years old when I went down the first hills on the slopes. Summer holidays, on the other hand, are associated with cycling, hiking and swimming.

In grammar school you played basketball and then added running. How did that happen?

In the fourth grade, we received recruitment flyers for basketball and my friend and I convinced our parents to let us play. Team sports filled me up until a series of defeats came and most girls started to have other priorities related to puberty. For a while, a few teammates and I went to preparatory camps with Sparta Prague, where we also trained with women, but with my height of 170 centimeters, it didn't look like any great successes. At the same time, I was already competing for the school in several athletic disciplines, from the 60-meter sprint, the 800-meter run, the long jump and the high jump. The eight-meter race caught my attention the most. I soon got into Lokomotiva in Beroun, and I did well in my first races. And when I then had to decide between basketball and athletics, the choice was clear.

You mainly competed for Čáslav, where you were coached by Jarmila Kratochvílová. What was it like to train with the legend of Czech athletics?

Jarmila is above all a great person, so we had such a family atmosphere. Her training style is very specific, very focused on strength and a lot of repetitions. Some methods were similar to how she used to train herself. The famous pull-up bar and weights probably need no mention, shoveling snow from the track, long hill runs, and repeated 200s were always among the specialties. Soon, my training sessions became a rarity at training camps. Jarmila is very modest, but even so, charisma and authority radiate from her at every step, so of course I was proud at every race that she was training me. It was sometimes restrictive, but mainly motivating for better performances. She was always the first to tell me that performance is mainly about the head and although I didn't want to believe it for a long time, I gradually had to agree with her and today I try to pass that on to everyone myself.

What do you cound as your main success in running?

I have been through youth national teams and international competitions. My favorite memory is of the European Team Cup in Serbia and Italy, where I won a silver and bronze medal. I really enjoyed running at the Odložil Memorial or the Zlatá tretř in Ostrava. Among adults, I even managed to win a republic bronze in the 1500m. Then my steps were directed to the USA. There, I have the fondest memories associated with the Stanford Invitational and Mt. Sac Invitational, where, in addition to university athletes, professionals also compete.

When did you start coining the idea of studying and running the U.S?

During high school, coaches from America contacted me. At that point, I had no interest in leaving or changing anything. I only started thinking about it while studying at ČZU. Two-phase training and demanding studies in English began to take their toll in the form of fatigue, injuries, and subsequently declining performance. I felt that combining sports and studies was not ideal. There was no room for regeneration, which is so necessary for high-quality performance, and therapies were very expensive. There was no real opportunity for a part-time job, so it was not possible to become more financially independent. So I thought about how best to combine sports and studies while being as financially dependent on my parents as possible. I had had several offers to study in America for a long time, and that is why I returned to the idea after half a year of studying at ČZU and finally chose this path.

What does it takes to succesfully relocate to the U.S?

The path is very individual for each person. Generally speaking, it is necessary to pass standardized tests, impress the admissions committee with your extracurricular activities, maintain good grades in high school and have a high level of English. An essay on a chosen topic and letters of recommendation from former teachers also play a role in acceptance. Of course, it is necessary to have adequate sports performance and choose a division or league accordingly. Last but not least, there are finances and options for financing your studies. Those who achieve a full scholarship have a much easier path. The last phase of the process is very bureaucratic. Quite a few applicants give up the process due to the flood of forms that must be filled out correctly when applying to study in the USA.

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How did your American journey unfold?

I received a full scholarship in the highest division at Oklahoma State University, where several of our super runners have worked in the past. At first, it was very difficult for me to trust a different system than the one we are used to in Europe. Moreover, I was coming from my coach, Jarmila Kratochvílová, and I thought who could tell me more about the discipline than a world record holder. After a few weeks of stubbornness, I decided to try it and adjust my mind. And I was surprised at how much their system suited me and how quickly the results and personal records came. I absorbed more American self-confidence into all of this and enjoyed every race, as well as the training. The team of motivated young athletes all around me, the facilities, equipment and the enormous support from the university and the public towards the athletes also helped tremendously. I repeatedly talk to professional athletes in the Czech Republic and we keep coming to the point that a student athlete in the USA has incomparably more support and background than a student athlete in the Czech Republic. And then there's the bonus of gaining a different perspective in a different environment, establishing personal and professional contacts, learning a foreign language, and generally creating a great starting position for life after college.

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What did you study?

The first two years in the USA are a kind of trial and error, where you form your ideas about your future profession, try different subjects and choose your field only at the end of the second year. I changed it several times, but I more or less always moved within the boundaries of sports and health. In the end, I obtained a bachelor's degree in Public Health, a non-medical field focused on health prevention and, in my case, epidemiology. I subsequently completed my master's degree in the same field at Utah State University and, since both fields were recognized as standard in the Czech Republic, I eventually completed my studies back in the Czech Republic, in the doctoral program at the Department of Biomedicine at the Czech Technical University.

Why is it so difficult to combine professional sport and education in the Czech Republic?

In America, the image of an athlete has played a very important role in society for many years. The habits created through sports, the human and social value that an athlete brings to the professional sphere, are highly valued by employers and the general public. In the Czech Republic, and indeed throughout Europe, there is a great emphasis on the academic part, instead of the holistic development of a person. If someone plays sports, it does not bring them much advantage or relief in high school or college, and certainly not in employment. On the contrary, it is viewed as something bad and disruptive, and for this reason, in my opinion, sports among young people are declining, there are fewer role models for young people, and then when they are faced with a decision about what to do with their lives after graduation, they are forced to choose between sports and studies due to pressure from family and society, because they are told that they cannot do both. We do have centers for talented youth and centers for top sports in the Czech Republic, but financially and materially it still cannot be compared to America. I have experience with friends who studied in the USA in the past and now work for top football or hockey clubs in the Czech Republic, and they confirm that even there the conditions are far from equal to what a student athlete receives in the USA. However, society is certainly gradually noticing what can be done better, and projects such as the University Hockey League in the Czech Republic are emerging.

‍Today you run USA Sport & Study and help Czech athletes get into American universities. How did you get into this?

We help both Czech and foreign students who do not want to choose between sports or studies, but want to prove that it is possible to do both and also get a university degree and foreign experience. The primary destination, where we know from our own experience that it works best, is America. But we certainly do not forget about other countries, and if an athlete comes to us and wants to study in Europe or Asia, we try to accommodate them. I would say that I got into this job by accident, but for me, coincidences do not exist and everything has its reason. After returning to the Czech Republic, I worked in a corporate office for several years and one day my friend, athlete Irena Gillarová, connected me with the founder Robert Sovík. We went for a walk around Prague, discussed our experiences of playing sports and studying in America, and it suddenly occurred to me, even humanly, that I had found a kindred spirit and a person who is energetic, motivated and with a vision to help others have a similar opportunity and life experience as we had. The whole project appealed to me so much that after another year, I left the corporate world and joined an organization whose mission makes complete sense to me.

How does the organization operates today?

The organization has been operating since 2013, when Robert Sovík founded it as an original school project. After his studies, Robert worked in a fin-tech company in Manhattan, but after a few years he decided to develop his original project in more detail and gradually refined all the details to its current form. Today, we are able to evaluate the individual situation of each student, select the most suitable school for them, comprehensively prepare them through our e-learning platform so that they can master the admissions process, support them in submitting their application, and ensure the administration and logistics of the entire move to America.

How many students do you manage?

We have about forty students under our wing every year. We are a smaller organization, so we don't do it on a massive scale, but we take care of a personal approach so that each student receives the maximum necessary care. We take care of very promising athletes and academically gifted students who study at the most prestigious universities. We are currently sending top junior golfers to university, several promising rowers, skiers, hockey players and soccer players. We also have fencers, swimmers, tennis players, volleyball players, basketball players and athletes. And there are many more sports.

How difficult is for Czech student and athlete get scholarship?

The competition is getting bigger every year, and the whole financial situation has been complicated by Covid and other unforeseen events and new regulations. Only some individuals who excel in their category both academically and in performance will be able to get a full scholarship. But generally speaking, international students have very good prospects for a decent sports scholarship. This can be supplemented by an academic scholarship or so-called Financial Aid, which could be loosely translated as a social scholarship.

What do you see as the biggest benefit of studying and playing sports abroad?

Athletes have conditions and facilities that they do not get anywhere else, even as professional athletes. In addition, they have the opportunity to flexibly adjust their lectures to their training sessions, which they do not have in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, depending on the field they graduate in, they can subsequently be attractive on the job market and benefit from the knowledge and experience from the American environment. And last but not least, they will learn to be more independent, responsible, get to know a new culture and create new relationships, both friendly and working. In other words, after graduating, they can choose whether to pursue professional sports or use their education.

‍What is the vision of your organization?

We want to support talented students and athletes on their journey to gain experience and perspectives abroad. We want them to be able to use sport to achieve their goals for as long as possible, and then to make the most of all their experience and find the best job for themselves. For us personally, it doesn't end with studies, but on the contrary, it begins. We also establish cooperation with Czech and foreign employers and try to show what value an employee's sports background brings not only to the employer, but to the entire society. We therefore also address the career application of high school and university graduates.

‍Chtěla překonat světový rekord své trenérky, místo toho vystudovala americkou univerzitu. Dnes pomáhá českým sportovcům ke stipendiím - Zítřek.cz (zitrek.cz)

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