Matěj Krsek: "The biggest goal is to run the Czech 400m record"
Interview with Matěj Krsek, Unicorn University student and professional athlete. Matěj represented the Czech Republic at the Summer Olympic Games (LOH) in Tokyo and recently broke a new national record in the 4x400m mixed relay in Chořov, Poland.
You can also listen to the podcast on other platforms:
Hi I'm Týna and today I'm here with Matěj, who is studying at 2 colleges and likes to play the piano. Matěj also represented the Czech Republic at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Matěj, can you please tell me what exactly you do in athletics and for how long?
Sure, thank you for inviting me. In athletics I do sprints, especially 400m and I am also a frequent participant in 4x400m relays.
And how did you get into it? Did your parents guide you or was it your decision?
I guess halfway, because my parents were athletes. When I was about 12 years old, it was a period of time when my older brother was doing track and field and I was playing football at the time, but I really liked what my older brother was doing, so I decided to give it a shot.
You recently broke the national record in Poland with other athletes. Can you tell us more about that?
Sure. We managed to break the national record at the European Games in Poland with the 4x400m relay mix, which means 2 boys and 2 girls. It is a huge success for us, a huge joy, because it will mean 95% sure qualification for the World Championships, which will take place in about a month in Budapest. So now we are all fully training and preparing for the upcoming peak season.
Going back to the Tokyo Olympics, can you describe how it went?
I have to say that it was a very interesting experience because although it was the Olympics, where usually the stands are packed and there's cheering from morning to night and an incredible atmosphere - or I believe that's usually the case (laughs), these games were unique in that unpleasant covid measures interfered, and that meant that there were about 2,000 spectators in a huge stadium that had a capacity of 100,000. So the games were very marked. We were there for about 3 weeks and we were locked up in the Olympic Village and we couldn't go out. It was a kind of a housing estate where anything was possible, but still, to be cooped up for 3 weeks and not be able to walk to Tokyo, it had its positives and negatives.
The fans weren't there at all?
There were very few. There were severe restrictions and only athletes from their own countries could cheer. So in practice there were about 500 to 1,000 spectators during the competition. So by the standards of athletic competition, almost nobody.
The Olympics is a dream come true for athletes, I guess you could say, but do you have any other goals you'd like to achieve?
Yes, I do. I guess the medium-term goal is to participate in the Summer Olympics in Paris next year. The goal for me is to get there in the 400m individual medley. Because I was also part of the relay team at the previous Games in Tokyo, but I didn't run there myself. I would like to change that now and push myself a little bit. My long-term goal, the biggest goal I have in athletics is to run the Czech 400m record.
So I will keep my fingers crossed! And I also want to ask, how often do you have training, competitions and how do you manage to combine it with universities?
It varies during the year because we have a preparatory period and in that period we have training 9x, 10x a week and then when we have races, maybe only 5x, 6x. As far as fitting it in with school, I have to say that it is possible, but only because I'm studying the online form here at Unicorn, which is completely time flexible. In fact, that's one of the reasons I chose this school. I have a very unstable schedule during the year, where sometimes I'm away for 2 weeks and can't go to school at all, and then maybe on the other hand I have a week where I can focus purely on school. I train sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the morning and during the year I often fly abroad for competitions. Most schools are difficult to make compatible, but this way of online teaching makes it possible.
And that's the biggest advantage you see? Or is there something else why you chose software development?
For me, the choice of the whole school rests on three pillars. One of them was online learning, which allows me time flexibility. So the second pillar that was attractive to me was that I looked at the syllabus of the major and compared it to the syllabus at other schools that offered similar majors and it came out simply that there wasn't much sauce at this school. In fact, all the subjects taught here made sense to me and I thought - this is what I want to study. Either the compulsory or then the extra elective choice of subjects appealed to me terribly. I can't fully confirm the third pillar because I'm not that far along in my studies and I don't have a way to compare it to other schools, but I can base it on reviews from other students or information the school provides. And I can say that the school has excellent links to practice. Really how it works in real life, it has a lot of great partners, world famous brands and companies, so that was also a factor that played PRO why I chose this field.
Do you plan to continue working in software development after graduation?
I would like to. I am still studying at the Czech University of Agriculture, majoring in Nutrition and Food. Although this field has given me a lot, I don't see myself in it. In the future I would like to do something else, namely the world of IT, programming, software development and similar things. I have to say that at the moment, as it allows me the time flexibility, I believe it will allow me to move smoothly from the career sports world to the non-sports world in the future.
Since you mentioned the other school, what made you choose such different majors?
Good question. The truth is that when I was choosing a school a couple of years ago, when I started studying at CFA, I hesitated for a long time which school I would choose. I've always been close to many different majors. This abrupt change was probably due to the fact that I realized that nutrition or food was not what I wanted to do for a living in the future. So I was wondering what to do next. My father is a computer programmer, so I was already close to it from that perspective. Secondly, I was wondering what direction to take to meet some of my requirements, which were, for example, that I just require time flexibility. And that's what I think programming allows. After all, I can program anywhere in the world under any conditions. I just need a computer and the Internet. Wherever I'm going to be at training camps, competitions or sometime in the future I can travel, I can do it anywhere and anytime and I'm not tied to some company fixed in Prague or somewhere else in the world and it can be done online. So that was one requirement that software development met and was probably the primary reason I chose this field. And maybe also another thing, I've always been close to math, science, logical thinking, I like to solve problems and things like that, so in the end it was actually an easy choice.
Tell me more about what you think is the recipe for someone who has such a heavy workload in terms of work, studies and sports. What's the recipe for the good mood you have here?
That's a good question too, a tough one. Come to think of it, I don't think the recipe is quite that simple. Keep looking until those given activities or hobbies or what you're doing are completely fulfilling. It may sound like a cliché, but I feel like I enjoy what I do, whether it's sports or studying, so I enjoy it tremendously, and I think that's one of the keys that allows me to be excited, happy and cool about it.
I have one last question. This year we will be holding an adaptive familiarization course in September for both our current and new students. So I was wondering if you would be interested in going and if you could find the time?
I would definitely be interested, it sounds very interesting, I would definitely like to give it a try.
So we'll include a sports programme as well (laughs). Is there anything else you'd like to add?
I would like to add that I've been at Unicorn for a year at the moment, or I've finished my first year now and thumbs up for me. I was coming in thinking - you know some private school, what's it going to be like? - but now in retrospect I can see that the teachers I've had the privilege of meeting have always been accommodating and professional at the same time. They always found extra time outside of office hours and really had a great attitude. I have to recommend the specially online format of the lessons as well. I've already had 3 years at another college, before that half a year at another college and now a year at this one, so for me the online format of teaching is absolutely unbeatable. The fact that you can study whenever you want, morning, evening, but at the same time you don't have to. And also once every week or two you have feedback from the pros, so it's absolutely perfect. So I recommend it to everyone. And that's it for me:)
Thank you so much. So this was our student Matej and we'll look forward to talking to someone else next time.
