Slovak cyclist Peter Sagan dominated the Celebrity of the Century poll, run by the Czech iDNES.cz website.
Journalists decided to launch the poll on the occasion of the centenary of the first Czechoslovak Republic. At first, readers picked a personality of each decade. A winner from the finalists was selected in the final poll, the Sme daily reported.
Celebrity of the Century:
- Peter Sagan (2008 – 2018 winner) - 10,468 votes
- Karel Čapek (1928 – 1938 winner) - 8,613 votes
- Marta Kubišová (1958 – 1968 winner) - 5,612 votes
- Zdeněk Svěrák (1988 – 1998 winner) - 5,057 votes
- Vladimír Menšík (1968–1978 winner) - 4237 votes
- Gustav Frištenský (1918 – 1928 winner) - 2622 votes
- Oldřich Nový (1938 – 1948 winner) - 2533 votes
- Libuše Šafránková (1978 – 1988 winner) - 2279 votes
- Karel Zeman (1948 – 1958 winner) - 2172 votes
- Ivan Trojan (1998 – 2008 winner) - 1458 votes
About 45,000 readers voted in the poll, 10,000 of whom voted for Sagan, Sme wrote.
Many personalities from Czech and Slovak culture, such as Czech writer Karel Čapek and Karel Zeman, director of The Fabulous World of Jules Verne cult film from 1958, lost to Sagan. Karel Gott, a music icon from the Czech Republic, did not even make the final list.
Sagan was not the only Slovak in the poll
iDNES.cz defined a celebrity as someone who has achieved high recognition, has become well-known, and has caught media attention.
Although Sagan was the only Slovak who made it to the Top 10 Czech personalities of the century list, there were many other Slovaks nominated in the poll. Most of them were mentioned in the last poll, mapping the well-known figures from 2008 to 2018.
This included actors Ján Koleník, Diana Mórová, Táňa Pauhofová, Dano Dangl, and Vica Kerekes, and Slovak singers Emma Drobná and Celeste Buckingham, Sme wrote.
