Karel Prohl (Czech Republic)

Karel Prohl (born in 1947) is a outstanding Czech weightlifter, great athlete, coach, journalist, historian and official of the Czech Weightlifting Union.

In many ways, Prohl is a living history of Olympic weightlifting in Czechoslovakia and Czech republic. He is an 11-x champion of Czrechoslovakia (1967-1970, 1972-1973, 1975, 1977-1978, 1980, 1982). For 12 years, he competed for the national team of his country – from 1966 to 1978.

Karel Prohl competed in the 56kg class. He 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.

As an athlete, Prohl set 100 (!!!!) national records.

After the end of his career as a weightlifter, he 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).