lit a candle 3d agoWatched him skate in old clips and couldn't believe how sharp those lifts were. So cool that he came back to Prague as a champion after everything his family went through.
Their story
Otto John Jelinek (Czech: Otakar Jelinek), PC (May 20, 1940, to September 5, 2026), was a Canadian pair figure skater, businessman, Progressive Conservative politician, and diplomat. With his sister Maria he won the 1962 World Figure Skating Championships pairs title in Prague, the city of their birth, after placing fourth…
Otto John Jelinek (Czech: Otakar Jelinek), PC (May 20, 1940, to September 5, 2026), was a Canadian pair figure skater, businessman, Progressive Conservative politician, and diplomat. With his sister Maria he won the 1962 World Figure Skating Championships pairs title in Prague, the city of their birth, after placing fourth at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley. He later sat in the House of Commons for twenty-one years, held Mulroney-era cabinet portfolios including National Revenue, and served as Canada's ambassador to the Czech Republic after 2013. The Canadian Press reported that he died peacefully in hospital on Saturday September 5, 2026, at age 86, after living with Parkinson's disease for nearly twenty years.
He was born in Prague during the Nazi Protectorate. His parents, Henry Jelinek and Jarmila Zizka, raised five children. His father manufactured corks and aluminium bottle tops and owned factories that the Communists confiscated after the February 1948 coup. In a Radio Prague interview, Otto recalled that the family escaped in stages with help from a South American diplomat's car into Austria, then Switzerland, reuniting with an older brother already at school in Lausanne. The children thought they were going on a picnic and cried when told they would not return for bicycles, dolls, and friends. After about a year in Switzerland they settled in Canada. He later described Toronto streetcar abuse of "DPs" and said Canada became a far more open society. Education listed in the Parliamentary Guide includes Swiss Alpine College, Davos (1958-59), and Appleby College, Oakville, Ontario.
Otto and Maria began skating together in Prague at Stvanice because they were closest in age among the siblings. In Canada they trained at the Oakville Skating Club. They were Canadian junior pairs champions in 1955, won World bronze in 1957 and 1958, World silver in 1960, and finished fourth at the 1960 Olympics. In 1961 they took the Canadian and North American pairs titles despite a bad fall the day before North Americans that left Otto with a concussion and Maria with a thigh gash. They nearly boarded Sabena Flight 548 with the U.S. team to the 1961 Worlds in Prague; their coach pulled them off to wait, and the American team died in the Brussels crash. The 1961 Worlds were cancelled. In 1962 they returned to Prague under tense visa negotiations and won World gold before a packed home crowd skating to Czech music. Otto told Radio Prague it was "incredibly emotional" and that with their hearts they also skated for Czechoslovakia. They were first among pairs to popularize multi-revolution lifts and side-by-side double jumps. Inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1962, they retired from competition that year, toured with Ice Capades for about six years, and entered the Skate Canada Hall of Fame in 1994.
Otto invested skating earnings in Canadian Skate Industries (figure and hockey skates) and real estate. Speeches complaining about business red tape led Progressive Conservatives to recruit him. He won High Park-Humber Valley in 1972 and 1974, Halton in 1979, 1980 and 1984, and Oakville-Milton in 1988, six consecutive elections. Sworn to the Privy Council on September 17, 1984, he served as Minister of State for Fitness and Amateur Sport, Minister of State for Multiculturalism (from August 20, 1985), Minister of Supply and Services (from March 31, 1988), briefly Acting Minister of Public Works, and Minister of National Revenue (January 30, 1989, to June 24, 1993). He left politics rather than seek the PC leadership when Mulroney retired, announcing he would move to Prague after his wife Leata urged a sabbatical to join the post-Velvet transformation.
In the Czech Republic he chaired Deloitte & Touche Czech Republic and later Deloitte Central Europe (into the mid-2000s), chaired Colliers International CEE, led Olympiad for Czech Republic (Prague 2020 Olympic bid advocacy), and in 2011 joined Passport Energy as a managing partner for Europe. Appointed Canadian ambassador to the Czech Republic in August 2013, he was still in the role when HuffPost and Radio Prague interviewed him in 2015. His appointment drew Globe and Mail commentary (Daniel Livermore) raising questions about political appointments, long prior Czech business ties, and association with the contested BAE-Saab Gripen Czech fighter lease lobbying of the early 2000s. Historical reporting named him among agents/mediators; he denied wrongdoing; Czech police later shelved related inquiries. Frame as documented controversy and unanswered public questions around the appointment, not adjudicated guilt.
He married Leata Bennett on August 17, 1974; they had two children, Misha and Jamie. A late-1963 Skating magazine note recorded an engagement to American ice dancer Darlene Streich that did not become his later marriage. Religion is listed as Protestant in the Parliamentary Guide. Sister Maria Jelinek (born November 16, 1942) remains associated with Oakville skating circles in public bios.
Biography adapted from EN Wikipedia Otto Jelinek and Maria Jelinek; Canadian Press via Narcity 2026-09-06; HuffPost How I Got There 2015-12-08; Radio Prague International Parts 1-2 (2015); Encyclopedia.com / Canadian Parlia.
In their own words
“Coming back to Czechoslovakia was an incredibly emotional situation... And the 19,000 people went crazy. We won the gold medal for Canada. But with our hearts we also skated for Czechoslovakia.”
On 1962 Prague Worlds; Radio Prague Part 1, 2015
“It's very difficult for me to talk about that even now. Because it's such a tragic thing to have all these young skater, young athletes, their coaches and parents killed in one swoop.”
On the Sabena tragedy; Radio Prague Part 1
“We kids thought we were going on a picnic to Austria and returning the same day. Because we went with no luggage, with no toys.”
On escape; Radio Prague Part 1
“I never planned to go into politics... I still don't consider myself a politician, although I served 21 years in Ottawa, nearly 10 of them as a cabinet minister.”
HuffPost / Radio Prague Part 2
“I am not a really smart guy; I am a persistent guy. There are many smarter guys in the world than I am.”
On persistence; HuffPost
“The feeling that I made ten thousands of people happy every night made me very happy going to sleep... That's a real measurement of success.”
On Ice Capades; HuffPost
“Leaders must be able to listen, not be too quick to judge, and not be too quick to get stuck in conflict... Words for leaders have to be matched with actions.”
On leadership; HuffPost
“When they see a half full glass, Canadians tend to say it's half full, whereas Czechs tend to say it's half empty. But that's changing.”
On Czech-Canadian outlook; Radio Prague Part 2
Photos
2Otto Jelinek at the Progressive Conservative leadership convention, June 1983
by People Forever
Yes. And then he actually went back to live there and build things. Not many people do that.