Wimbledon champ Krejcikova bypassed for Czech sports award: Her reaction

World number 10 Barbora Krejcikova has penned down an emotional letter after being snubbed in the Czech Sportsperson of the Year award. The annual awards took place on Friday, December 20, where canoeist Josef Dostal received the award ahead of the 29-year-old.

The decision was a surprising one, considering that Krejcikova won a Wimbledon title earlier this year after beating Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the final with a score of 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. She finished the season on a high as well. Her last event in 2024 was the WTA Finals in Riyadh, where her journey came to an end after losing in the semifinal to China’s Qinwen Zheng in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 7-5.

After the announcement of the Czech Sportsperson of the Year award, Krejcikova, in a post on her official account on the social media platform Instagram, expressed her feelings about the development. The Brno-born congratulated Dostal for winning the award but admitted that the development left her with ‘mixed feelings’.

"I would like to congratulate Josef Dostal for winning this year's Athlete of the Year poll, as well as the other athletes awarded,” she wrote. “However, I have to admit, that the results of the survey left me with mixed feelings again. I don't understand that if an Olympic medal is a key criteria, why aren't our Olympic gold winners this year in the top three? Instead, is Tomas even seventh? And for what reason did Wimbledon beat the Olympics gold medal a few years ago? I had similar feelings from the results of the poll in 2021 when, in addition to the Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in singles and doubles, I won the Olympic gold alongside [Katerina Siniakova], we won the Tournament champion, and even then it was not enough for the overall championship. At that moment, I was wondering, what exactly should an athlete win to deserve this award in the eyes of journalists?”.