Ondřej Hotárek was born on January 25, 1984 in Brno. Photo: Ondřej Hotárek and his previous partner Stefania Berton by Luu [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Brno, Feb 13 (BD) – Ondřej Hotárek, born in Brno, is a Czech-Italian pair figure skater. He’s currently competing with his partner Valentina Marchei in Italian colors at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
“Marchei and Hotárek teamed up in 2014 and are making their Olympic debut together as a pair,” the official Olympic website writes.
“They secured a quota spot for Italy ahead of the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang by finishing ninth at the 2017 World Championships in Helsinki,” the Olympic summary continues.
The Italian figure skater was born in Brno and represented the Czech Republic earlier in his career. When he was unable to find a suitable partner for the pairs category, he moved to Italy, where he also married, Czech magazine Reflex wrote on Monday, February 12.
Today he lives in Como in the north of Italy. Since September 2010 he has been an Italian citizen.
“I am an Italian athlete with a Czech heart,” said Hotárek in Reflex. He decided to connect the Czech Republic and Italy by choosing music from the film ‘Amarcord’, directed by Federico Fellini in 1973, for their free skate. The music they will skate to was recorded under the direction of conductor Marcello Rota of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
You can watch Marchei and Hotárek’s performance tomorrow, on February 14.
The schedule of Hotárek’s appearances at the Winter Olympics is here.
