Karel Prohl: 19-Year Old Promise of Czech Weightlifting
History in Color:
November 7, 1967, Budapest, Hungary – 19-year old bantamweight Karel Prohl, rising star of Czechoslovakian weightlifting, competes in the 56kg class at the international tournament of Olympic hopes held at the Sports Palace in Budapest.
Karel Prohl (born in 1947) went on to become an 11x champion of Czechoslovakia (1967-1970, 1972-1973, 1975, 1977-1978, 1980, 1982). He set 100 (!!!!) national records. For 12 years, he competed for the national team of his country – from 1966 to 1978.
Prohl competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and won bronze medal at the 1975 World Championship in Moscow. At the Eropean Championships, he was a vice champion in 1978 and won four consecutive bronze medals in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976.
After the end of his career as a weightlifter, Prohl worked as a coach, held various positions in the Czech Weightlifting Union and was very active in the masters weightlifting tournaments. He was 16x European champion (1992 – 2009), 9x World champion (1989 – 2008) and 3x gold medalist at the Masters World games (1989, 2002, 2009).