Michal Smola
Nickname
Vlk, Bingo
Born
December 21, 1981, in Zlin, Czech Republic
Residence
Zlin, Czech Republic
Club
SKOB Zlin, IFK Mora
Profession
Student of doctoral degree, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Applied Informatics, Department of Electrotechnics and Measurements
Hobbies
Travelling, xc skiing, cycling, climbing, B&W photography, music, independent films
Orienteering career
Michal began doing orienteering at age of twelve in a club SKOB Zlin. He was coached by Jiri Stacke till 18 years of age. First unexpected success came in 1995 when Michal gained Czech short distance title in M16 category. The first international victory came in European Youth Championships in Hungary in M18 category in 1998.
Michal started to be coached by his own since 2000. He won two gold medals in Junior world championships (short, relay) in 2000. The following year he defended gold in relay with Czech team and showed stable shape in short and long which meant two bronze medals for him.
Beginning in men's class was far behind expectations. Among few good results can be counted 8th in Tiomila in 2003 with FK Friskus Varberg and two gold and one silver medal in University world championships in 2004. The most difficult period of Michal's career came in 2005 when he did not qualified for WOC and in the same time he had serious ankle injury. Fortunately it was impulse for changes in training and also for a change of Swedish club (Sodertalje-Nykvarn Orientering). New training methods have worked well and so Michal took his best results so far in 2006 - 4th place in WOC long distance and 9th place in overall world cup standing. In 2008 Michal won his first WOC medal. It was silver from the middle distance.
