Gerhardt Bubnik is a prominent Czech lawyer, and lifetime resident of Prague. He is also a recognized international sport official and organizer. In both areas he has received the highest possible recognitions and awards.
He has been inducted in the Czech Law Hall of Fame and received the Golden Badge for the Merits from the Czech Bar Association.
He has received the Olympic Order and also the Prize for Fight against Doping in Sport from the International Olympic Committee; he has been appointed Honorary Member of the International Skating Union.
Gerhardt Bubník was also the first Czechoslovak who has received the LL. M. Degree from the Harvard Law School.
As sport official he attended nine Winter Olympic Games since Innsbruck 1976 until Sochi 2014.
He has written an autobiography filled with human interest stories detailing successively:
-
his youth under Nazi occupation during WWII, and how the holocaust affected it,
-
he also reveals brave, compassionate acts of assistance to his family by individual Germans – acts that were later reciprocated in-kind,
-
education and work of a lawyer in Communist Czechoslovakia and during the Cold War,
-
study and life at the Harvard Law School, his perception thereof and of the U.S. in general
-
lifetime work of international commercial lawyer in free society after 1989,
-
30 years of judging top international competitions in Figure Skating,
-
his dedicated fight against doping in sport both on national and international level,
-
his role in Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan scandal at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer,
-
his work of the Official Investigator of the judging scandal involving French and Russian Figure Skating Judges at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City,
-
the work and problems of the International Skating Union during the period 1996 – 2010,
-
exceptional and exciting experiences from his travels around the whole globe,
-
meeting Royalties, Head of States and Prime Ministers,
-
some of his interesting legal as well as doping cases narrated often with great humor.
Many of the above listed features of the book will be of specific interest for the readers in the U.S.
The Book’s post-WWII narrative provides genuine insight into the operations of the Czech Communist/Socialist regimes in controlling the physical, intellectual, sport and cultural freedoms of the Czech society, and the methods used to compel conformity to the State party-line.
Intertwined with this Book’s narrative of these political matters are the author’s personal accounts of the joys and success experienced, and tragedies suffered, by some top-class, world-famous figure skaters from Europe, North America and Asia during the 60-year period (1950-2010) of his international service. The author describes how fame and fortune enabled some celebrated world-class skaters to exit their somewhat ascetic existence and move into the “fast lane” of life with sad – even fatal - results.
The readers of the Czech version of the books have often emphasized that the books is so exciting that they could not part with it until they finished it.
A captivating storytelling is complemented by more than 160 unique photographs and contemporary documents.
There are valuable lessons to be learned from this Book Law and Sport – My Passions.
His book is available on Amazon here.