He said goodbye to his sporting career as he was banned from international competitions. Everything he had been striving for was destroyed.
Everyone perceives what happened in the 20th century in the socialist countries in their own way. But one thing is clear – no one is allowed to just lock a person up like that.
However, for some reason this rule bypassed cycling champion Robert Gutyra. The famous Czechoslovak athlete simply lost the opportunity to take part in international competitions. He decided to leave the country together with his family. Or rather, to fly away – in a hot air balloon.
Robert Gutyra is an example of courage and determination. An ordinary guy from a provincial village got out into the world and became a member of the national team. He showed such excellent results that in 1970 he was invited to Canada to work. It was a six-month contract.
He went, pretending that he had not received a letter from Czechoslovakian functionaries that he was not allowed to leave the country. When he returned, Robert’s passport was confiscated. It was made clear to him that he could not take part in international competitions.
The intelligence services offered Robert the role of a snitch in return for his freedom. They wanted the man to make denunciations on other athletes. Gutyra reported the end of his career and refused this deal.
His family was left destitute. Reputations suffered, and it didn’t just affect Robert, but his family as well. Gutyra thought about fleeing the country when his daughter was not wanted to be accepted in a normal school.
One day on TV, Robert saw a story about families who had managed to escape from the GDR. They chose a very unusual way – they flew in a hot air balloon.
Slovak remembered the story. Not only that, he decided to turn it into reality. But the man realised that the border is guarded very well, so it will not be easy. However, escape by air was the only option to leave Czechoslovakia. True, Gutyra did not know at all where he could get a balloon and how to operate it.
However, he became interested in the subject and read all the books in the library about balloons. He had been a dozen times to a film in which a burner was shown. He memorised all the details so that he could put his plan into action. He even got a few hundred metres of stretchy fabric from the factory, lying about the boat section.
Robert spent a huge amount of money on his first attempt. He could have bought a car. But something went wrong.
The second balloon came out. His wife spent nights in the basement sewing it from a pattern Robert had made himself. It was very hard. It was about 20 metres high and 17 metres wide. They planned to run at night in 1983.
The acquaintances were simply warned that they were planning to move. The children were told everything right on the day before the escape, so that no one would give away the secret. Robert drove the balloon closer to the Austrian border and pelted it with various branches.
At 11 p.m., the family sat in a self-broken basket that Robert had reinforced with metal. He was worried that the border guards would start shooting at them. They had only two bags and a bicycle with them. The latter was replacing the anchor.
They flew for about 55 minutes, and then the burner stopped burning. The balloon began to sink downwards. However, Gutyra promptly replaced the gas cylinder to regain altitude.
The border guards saw a strange object in the sky quite late. They started shooting, but did not care much. They did not realise what it was and decided that the flying object did not pose any danger to the country.
They had to land at night so that they would not be carried back. They were very lucky that they stopped on a flat spot and did not hit a power line.
The landing was quite hard but there were no injuries. They ended up in the village of Falkenstein, Austria. Not more than a thousand people lived there.
Then a new life began for them. The family moved to the United States. Gutyra worked at a construction site, but he did not forget about cycling. However, no one offered him to participate in competitions.
A few years ago he and his wife moved to the Czech Republic. He is now about 80 years old. In his homeland, many people know about him, and he enthusiastically tells us that he does not regret his escape at all.
