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Eight pairs comprised of secondary schools students from the Liberec Region entered the competition On the Trail of the Patrons. This activity is part of the vyCOOL se! accompanying programme and is aimed at promoting the European youth Olympic games. Their task was to create a short portrait of one of the eight top Czech athletes who support EYOWF 2011.

The athletes are - the Cross Country Skier Lukáš Bauer, the Downhill Skier Ondřej Bank, the Biathlete Veronika Vítková, the Ski Jumper Roman Koudelka, the Ice Hockey goalie Marek Schwarz, the Nordic Combined Skier Pavel Churavý, the Figure Skater Tomáš Verner and the Snowboarder Michal Novotný. Each pair had the opportunity to witness part of his/her typical day, to have a look into their training routines and private lives. The question as to how to deal with the interesting film material was a challenging task.

The contestants briefly described their experience from the shooting and with meeting a famous star in front of an auditorium full of schoolmates and school directors, followed by the four-minute portrait itself.

"All the participants performed this less than easy task successfully. Prior to the shooting, they gathered as much information as possible about "their" star and were very well prepared for meeting them. In was interesting to see how each pair had an original and personal style when making the portrait. We witnessed the use of photographs with funny tags, he tspontaneous involvement of the athlete's family members and even slapstick," says Vanda Šulcová, coordinator of the accompanying programme for schools vyCOOL se!

The young students were not afraid of anything. The Patrons of the European youth Olympic even revealed (sometimes unexpectedly) a great deal about their private lives. Despite the fact that some of the film-makers struggled with the filming equipment, most of the portraits look almost professional. The jury was consequently faced with a major challenge when having to chose a winner. The jury consisted of ten members – the President of the EYOWF 2011 Organising Committee Roman Kumpošt, Jiřina Princová, Director of the School Department of the Liberec Region, Martin Ditrich, Chairman of EYOWF, o.p.s, Jan Stluka and Alexandr Kliment from the Czech Olympic Committee, a reporter from Czech Televison Veronika Macková and the sports journalists Miloslav Cihlář from Liberecký Deník, Michael Havlen from Mladá Fronta Dnes, Michael Polák from Sedmička and Tomáš Kohout from the Czech Radio 1 - Radiožurnál.

The decision was unanimous. With a decisive point lead, the winners were Filip Ferbl and Vlastimil Barák from the F.X. Šalda secondary school in Liberec. Their profile of the top Czech Downhill Skier Ondřej Bank was considered the best, in particular the survey in the streets with Ondřej standing by. The gap between the second and third place was only a few points. The silver went to Petra Hynčicová from Liberec and Monika Kvasničková from Jablonec nad Nisou, who shot with the Cross Country skier Lukáš Bauer. The girls, who both happen to be Cross Country skiers themselves, dealt masterfully with the little time they had with Lukáš and created a fascinating grotesque ending to their profile. The third best were Petr Socha and Michal Medek from Liberec, who managed not only to meet the Snowboarder Michal Novotný, but also his girlfriend, who disclosed some juicy gossip from their private lives. The three winning pairs received a video camera and merchandise from the organisers of EYOWF 2011. There were also some minor presents for the rest of the competitors.

Roman Kumpošt, President of the EYOWF 2011 Organising Committee commented: "I would like to thank all the students for the excellent job they did. It is not always easy with athletes at this level and all of them managed to get the best out of it. I believe it will be an unforgettable experience for them."

More pictures in Photogallery.