Story:

I had a great career as a volleyball player in Czechoslovakia where I was playing in a national team. I was praised, I had great results and all the benefits I could have. I decided to leave Czechoslovakia for personal reasons. My father has been sexually harassing me. Since both of my parents were lawyers and active communists in prominent positions, nobody would have believed me even if I had reported it because ‘such things do not happen in high-profile families’. I decided to escape because my father’s attacks became unbearable. I left in August 1988 during a friendly match in the Netherlands. I applied for asylum and soon I was playing with the Dutch national team with whom I participated in the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992.

Irena Králová