In front of the Prague Sports Hall, Němeček's statue Hockey Player has returned after renovation

Prague - The statue Hockey Player by sculptor Zdeněk Němeček stands again today in front of the Prague sports hall at the Holešovice Exhibition Grounds. Its unveiling after restoration in the artistic workshop of Houska and Douda was marked by the untying of a red ribbon and tapping of hockey sticks on the ground. The Gallery of the Capital City of Prague, which manages public sculptures in the metropolis, raised about 144,000 CZK of the 150,000 necessary in the project Adopt a Statue. Of that, 40,000 CZK was contributed by members of the amateur hockey theater and film teams Sklepovští sršáni and Českí lvi, who participated in today's celebration.

The statue stood in front of the hall since 1985 according to an earlier design by Němeček from the 1970s. It was under the management of the city gallery for about three years when significant structural damage was discovered in its attachment to the pedestal. According to curator Marie Foltýnová, after its restoration, none of the public sculptures in the metropolis are in a state of disrepair. “Zdeněk Němeček was a genius sculptor. He managed to capture both the joy of victory and human dignity in the sculpture,” added the main curator of the city gallery, Helena Musilová.

Ice hockey represents, according to her, one of the most significant expressions of national identity. The sculpture recalls three world championships in hockey that took place in Prague in 1972, 1978, and 1985, where Czechoslovak hockey players won two gold and one silver medal. According to Musilová, people also understood it as a symbol of Czechoslovakia's victory over the Soviet "team" in 1969.

However, the sculptor's son, Jan Němeček, did not confirm the widespread opinion that the model for the Hockey Player with the raised hockey stick was the forward Jozef Golonka. “It is said, and my dad kind of left it that way. People always asked him about it, and he mentioned Golonka's name because he liked him. But it’s not like that; it’s just generally a hockey player. It has become established as a legend, but in reality, that’s not the case,” Němeček said today to ČTK.

The city gallery aims to repair other sculptures in the Adopt a Statue program. One of them is the statue of Moses by František Bílek at the Staronová synagogue, another is the Resting one by Jaroslav Horejc on Štvanice. The gallery is having the sculptures restored with funds from the city as its founder; the collection is significant as a symbol for public participation in the project, Musilová added.

During the first of the collections in this program last spring, about 186,000 CZK was raised for the repair of the statue of Karel Hynek Mácha in Petřín.