45-second Czech anthem too short for us to celebrate say gold medal-winning athletes

THE Czech national anthem is facing a makeover after complaints that it is too short and insufficiently patriotic.

The Czech Olympic Committee argued that the 45-second anthem’s single verse meant gold-medal winning athletes have little time to bask in their glory on the podium.

The lyrics of “Kde Domov Můj?” (“Where is My Home?”) also focus on the beauty of the Czech countryside rather than stirring deeds of patriotic derring-do.

“Our goal is not to get things changed by law or to dictate to anybody,” said Jiří Kejval, the chairman of the committee. “We want to start a discussion about something new. It is through sport, after all, that most people hear the anthem.” Mr Kejval said that Czech athletes had complained they had too little time on the podium owing to its brevity.

“We probably have the second shortest national anthem in Europe,” Mr Kejval said. “The average is around 80 seconds. It’s a shame athletes don’t have more time to enjoy their success.”

The committee has also argued that the lyrics lack self-confidence and patriotism and called for a new version,

‘We probably have the second shortest national anthem in Europe. The average is around 80 seconds’

coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia.

“Where is My Home?” was adopted as the first part of the Czechoslovak national anthem in 1918 and for many years was sandwiched together with the Slovak anthem “Tatrou sa Blýska” (“Lightning over the Tatras”). Following the Velvet Divorce at the start of 1993, when Czechoslovakia split apart, the Czech section was left on its own.

To address the problem the Olympic committee commissioned a composer to come up with an alternative, and longer, arrangement of the anthem, which incorporates lines from a long discarded second verse. But so far the public appetite for change is low.

“I think we have a beautiful anthem and there is no need to change it,” said Andrej Babiš, the Czech prime minister.

An opinion poll on rozhlas.cz, a Czech news website, also found that 98 per cent disapproved of the new version of the anthem.