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There’s mixed Olympics sports news away from the stadium for Czech competitors. But on the courts, things have been going well for Czech women in both the singles and doubles competitions.

Czech javelin thrower Vítězslav Veselý will get a bronze medal from the 2012 Olympic Games in London after a retroactive disqualification of his Ukrainian colleague Oleksandr Pyatnytsya. The 31-year-old Ukrainian was stripped of his silver medal after he tested positive for the steroid turinabol and was ordered by the International Olympic Committee to return it. He was one of four more athletes sanctioned Tuesday by the IOC after retests of stored samples from London and the 2008 Beijing Games. Veselý had originally ended in fourth place, behind Antti Ruuskanen of Finland.

This week a spectacular opening ceremony heralded the beginning of the 2012 Paralympic games in London with the themes of enlightenment and diversity. Czechs are being represented at the games by 52 athletes competing across many traditional events like athletics and swimming, but will also be appearing in paralympics-only sports such as Boccia.

Vávra Hradílek was the first athlete from the Czech National team to clinch a medal at the XXX Summer Olympic Games in London this year. The kayaker, who has a vibrant personality and is both thoughtful and sharp on issues, discusses what it was like to win silver, as well as how he hopes to use his new-found fame.

The London Olympic Games, which are already being viewed as one of the greatest Olympics ever, were certainly memorable for the Czech Republic. The team took 10 medals, four more than in Beijing, and the wellington boots they wore at the opening ceremony received a lot of international attention. Meanwhile, the Czech Olympic House, which unlike at previous Games welcomed the general public, attracted a huge number of visitors.

For the Czech Republic, the London Olympics proved to be the most successful summer games since Atlanta 16 years ago. With four gold, three silver and three bronze medals, the country ranked 19th in the international medal count. Some of the athletes made the trip back home as soon as their events were over but on Monday two special flights brought the rest of the team –including a number of medalists - back home. JP went to meet them at Prague’s Kbely airport.

Members of the Czech Olympic Team return to Prague from London on Monday on two special flights. The first plane which arrived at Prague’s Kbely airport in the afternoon carried among others the bronze crew of the men’s four kayak; the second flight, to land at 8:30 PM, will carry gold medallists Barbora Špotáková, David Svoboda and Jaroslav Kulhavý. The Czech team won ten medals at the XXXth Summer Olympic games – four gold, three silver and three bronze medals – which ranked the Czech Republic 19th in the medal tally.

On the last day of the Olympics, the Czech team managed to sweeten their already successful run in London with two more gold medals in men’s mountain biking and pentathlon. The Czech Olympians can return home with heads held high, having won four more medals than in Beijing, and one more gold than four years ago. But the successes of the Czech delegation can be measured not only in the number of medals won, but also in the publicity it drew both in London and on the home turf.

In this week's Sports News: From five medals to ten; Hejnová secures bronze in the Women’s hurdles; canoe sprinting quartet secure Czech Republic another bronze; Barbora Špotáková wins javelin gold medal; Svoboda brings the Czech team a third gold and a final gold medal on the final Olympic day.

Mountain biker Jaroslav Kulhavý won the gold medal at the London Olympics. The 27-year-old Czech won the Czech Republic’s first ever Olympic medal in Sunday’s mountain bike race in a sprint finish when he managed to stay in front of Switzerland’s Nino Schurter, who finished second. Kulhavý’s gold set the Czech medal tally at 10, with four gold, three silver and three bronze medals which ranks the country 19th in the Olympic medal count, between Jamaica and North Korea.