Nominee 1 is Marketa Osickova who was nominated by the Czech Badminton Federation for her numerous contribution to the badminton society in Czech Republic. Badminton Europe (BEC) reached out to find out more about Marketa and her dedication towards badminton in her country.

Never ending contribution
Since 2001, Osickova started coaching children when she completed her studies in physical education. Four years later, she coached the national junior players. Alongside her coaching, she works part time with the Czech Badminton Federation since 2014 and to date, she juggles her time between coaching and administering badminton in her professional life. In her personal life, she is a wife and a mother to two girls, Aneta (12) and Erika (9). Her hobbies are skiing, both downhill and cross country, hiking and travelling.

Marketa Osickova (with BWF Coaches' Manual) and the Czech coaches

Osickova’s coaching experiences

Osickova is a part time coach at TJ Astra Zahradní Město Badminton Club in Prague and at Czech´s regional center. She coaches every day during the week in the afternoon and delivers session at the club on Sundays. On top of that, she is the national Shuttle Time coordinator and is responsible for the players´ and coaches’ development. She was also the national junior team assistant and she loves working with junior players. Unfortunately, due to family commitments and the amount of travelling when she was the national junior team assistant, she had to quit this post. However, this setback did not prevent her from contributing. She channeled her dedication for badminton in the administrative side.

Marketa Osickova (in pink) at one of the Coach Education courses in Czech Republic

Osickova as a sports administrator

At the Czech Badminton Federation, Osickova does part of the secretarial work. She coordinates new players´ and clubs’ registration, paper work for the national junior team, coordination of the U15 Talent Team and is the responsible person for the development and education of coaches, organizing all Shuttle Time and Coach Education courses. One of the few highlights about her career at the federation is that she successfully implemented the Shuttle Time project and BWF Coach Education system into the Czech system together with her colleague Martina Bernacikova.

Hana Prochazkova, General Secretary of the Czech Badminton Federation, ´Marketa spent the biggest part of her life and time with badminton and is still continuously working hard to improve the sport in our country. That is why we hope that she will be the winner of this award´. 

The shortlisted nominees from the ‘Badminton for Women’ initiative will automatically be the nominees for the 2017 BEC Badminton for Women Award, which will be awarded at the 6th BEC Awards Gala Night in Dubrovnik, Croatia next year. The award winner is decided from the shortlisted nominees by the BEC Award Panel in cooperation with the Women in Badminton Commission.

This award is open to both male and femaleand withno age limit. Nominations need to be sent through the national federation and there is no limit to the total nominations. Cross nominations are also welcome. (E.g. Country A nominates person(s)/project(s) from Country B.) The deadline to send in the nomination(s) is onTuesday, 15th August 2017before 12:00 CEST.

For more information, visit our Badminton for Women webpage here.