VRABCOVA NYVLTOVA Eva

General
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING TO ATHLETICS
After competing at three Olympic Winter Games in cross-country skiing, she made the switch to athletics in 2015. She decided to quit cross-country skiing after struggling with an eating disorder while she was a member of the Czech national cross-country skiing squad. "The Czech national team doctor constantly said to me that I was overweight. He told everyone on the team similar things. I went through an eating disorder, that's a fact, but it wasn't just an aversion to food, it was an aversion to everything. I was hit by a combination of physical and mental stress. My problems stemmed from the feeling that I was useless as a cross-country skier, that I was unsuccessful, that no one needed me. All this at the time when I achieved the result of my life [fifth place in the 30km freestyle event at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi]. Fortunately, it turned out that the crisis started my rebirth. After the 2014 Winter Olympics, I began taking part in amateur running competitions. In the first half marathon of my career in Usti nad Labem [Czech Republic] I ran the second-best Czech time in history, without extensive training. From that day on, I started to feel like an athlete and not a cross-country skier. I don't regret that I didn't start running until I was 28, quite the opposite. Cross-country skiing gave me a foundation without which I would not have been able to start running." (bezfrazi.cz, 12 Aug 2018)

MOTHERHOOD
She welcomed the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo after she gave birth to a daughter in April 2020. During her pregnancy she returned to cross-country skiing training in order to maintain fitness as she was advised not to run. Two months after giving birth she returned to competitive running at a half marathon event in Trutnov, Czech Republic. "I was happy with the postponement of the Olympics. Of course not in this situation [the COVID-19 pandemic], because it's terrible. But for me, it's an open door and I would like to have a chance to catch up." She had planned to retire after the 2020 Olympic Games due to long-term Achilles tendon issues, but after taking time off to give birth, she said her plans had changed. "It's all changed now. 2020 was supposed to be my last season. But I think I will run for another four or five years [speaking in mid-2020]." (krkonossky.denik.cz, 01 Apr 2020; idnes.cz, 23 Jul 2020, 03 Nov 2019; sport.cz, 30 Oct 2019; ceskybeh.cz, 03 Jul 2020)