Twenty Years After: Czech Heroes and Fallen Heroes of the Nagano 1998 Olympic Games.

Abstract

In February 1998, the entire Czech Republic was in jubilation over the gold medal victory of its ice-hockey team at the Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. The players were spectacularly welcomed home by tens of thousands of fans, including ordinary citizens and political figures. Goal-keeper Dominik Hašek, the famous NHL star Jaromír Jágr, and team captain Vladimír R?ži?ka, were heavily covered by the media. The three athletes went on to have successful careers after Nagano. Czech media coverage played a significant role in the „Naganomania“ of the time and was later also to assist in the social fall of some of those heroes. Based on the theory of myths in sports journalism, the concept of fallen heroes, and the media frame analysis, this paper presents the development within the media coverage of the four above-mentioned athletes in selected Czech dailies. The media portrayals of these athletes so similarly celebrated in 1998 are shown to have diversely evolved over a twenty year span.