Zina Hrdličková has shooting in her blood. As the daughter of 1992 Barcelona Olympic champion Petr Hrdlička, she has been shooting since she was seven years old. However, she soon tired of the air rifle and took up the shotgun at the age of 12. Trap shooting was the obvious choice. “A shotgun is much more exciting than an air rifle, which is just shooting at paper. Originally I wasn’t into shooting at all, I wanted to do modern gymnastics. But I ended up with a shotgun,” laughs the young athlete, who competes for the SKP Kometa Brno and the Czech Shooting Federation.
She is also in her fourth semester of the Special Education of Security Forces programme, which has also led her to take up martial arts. “I was studying at a sports-oriented grammar school and didn’t really know where to go from there. The coaching programme didn’t appeal to me, but then I became interested in the Special Education of Security Forces programme. And it was an excellent decision. We really are a close-knit group, we clicked in class and I’m glad I chose to study there.” She juggles her studies and her role as a member of the national team with ease. She has an individual study programme and has carefully planned her study schedule so that it doesn’t conflict with her training and competitions.
She trains under the guidance of Radomír Zaoral at the shooting range in Brno-Soběšice, together with her dad and another Olympic winner David Kostelecký. Zina gets valuable training and competition advice from both. “What they can teach me is priceless. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult with my dad because I have my own opinions and I want to learn some things on my terms. My dad won the Olympics in a yellow cotton T-shirt and checked shorts. That was thirty years ago. Now we have compression shirts and the shooting techniques have evolved just like the clothes, you have to think about it a lot more,” says Zina. She fires about twenty thousand shotgun shells a year and trains four times a week on the range and twice a week in the gym. This is also part of competitive shooting.
Zina starts her competition days with a breakfast consisting of a roll or toast with jam, which she describes as a ritual she has developed over the years. During the race, the normally cheerful and outgoing girl becomes, in her own words, something of a loner. “I don’t talk to anyone much, I have headphones in my ears, I listen to songs and concentrate on what’s going on in my head. I warm up and go shooting. But the warm-up isn’t very intense for us shooters, it’s more about stretching and breathing. We don’t worry about the heart rate because the stress of the competition takes care of that,” she laughs.
Zina’s most cherished sporting achievement is six years old, but unforgettable. “In 2019, I brought home gold and bronze from the Junior World Championships. I was 15 years old, and it was not expected. I didn’t expect it either. The freshest achievement is the two gold medals from the World University Championships in India,” she adds. Zina is now preparing for the European Championships in France and plans to shoot on a European range in one of the competitions before the championships, to get a feel for the environment. “This will be my first year competing in the women’s category, so I need to keep my feet on the ground. But I will try to do my best, beat my personal record and enjoy the season,” says Zina.
No athlete is guaranteed success, but Czech shooters are among the best in the world. Fans and sports officials rely on them to bring home medals, even at the Olympics. So why are the Czechs so successful in this discipline? Zina Hrdličková thinks that the best shooters are the Italians, for whom shooting is a national sport. She does not know why the Czechs are among the best, but she is still looking for ways to improve her performance. “Shooting is very unpredictable. One day you’re doing great, but the next day you go to a shooting range and you can’t hit a thing. I don’t know why that happens. I even asked David Kostelecký about it, and he said he’s been trying to figure out the answer for 30 years,” she says.
Besides shooting, she loves to cook and bake. “Especially pastry, I take it as an opportunity to express myself, to unwind and relax. I have probably all the cookbooks by Roman Vaněk and I follow various blogs, like Weekend Baking. I also like to make things out of yeast dough and I’m happy that my family enjoy the results. Especially my brother, he eats everything I make,” says the successful shooter and Masaryk University student.