Video: First Spartakiad took place at Prague’s Strahov Stadium 65 years ago

The event was highlighted by synchronized gymnastics. In total there were 1,690,000 participants. The performances at Strahov were divided into Youth Day, Adult Day, Union Day and Armed Forces Day. There were also some competitive sports, events for tourists and the Spartakiad Festival of Folk Art Creativity.

Preparations for the 1955 edition began in 1953 shortly after the deaths of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Czechoslovak leader Klement Gottwald.

“The first nationwide Spartakiad must be guided by the idea of surpassing and overcoming in all respects what has hitherto been shown at earlier Sokol rallies, workers’ Olympiads and [regional] Spartakiads,” Czechoslovak President Antonín Zápotocký said in 1953.

Two contemporary newsreels catch a glimpse of the events. Pathe News simply refers to it as Prague: Children’s P.T. Display. The narrator glosses over politics, saying that mass displays of physical training have long been popular in Czechoslovakia. He mentions the current participants’ parents participated in similar events, without distinguishing between Sokol and the new Spartakiad movement.

He calls the patterns created on the Strahov filed a “miracle of organization and timing,” and goes on to praise the choreography and artistry.

A Czechoslovak newsreel after a brief introduction lets the visuals speak for themselves. It shows some of the larger events, with communist dignitaries such as Zápotocký looking on.