Roman Sebrle is a Czech Republic athlete born on November 26, 1974 in Lanskroun, Czech Republic. He currently lives with his wife Eva Kasalova, a Czech Republic 400 meter and 800 meter runner. They have a son named Stepan, born on September 4, 2002, and a daughter named Katerina, born on January 30, 2006. Roman Sebrle studied at Gymnazium Frantiska Martina Pelcla in Rychnov nad Kneznou and at Gymnazium Pardubice. He later studied an extension course on Information Science and Computer Technology.
Roman Sebrle started playing football at just six years old, but after a serious injury, he left the sport and started participating in athletic events. In 1991, he took part in his first decathlon competition in Tyniste nad Orlici, where he earned a total of 5,187 points. Roman Sebrle was coached by Jiri Cechak, and under his guidance, he joined the Track and Field club in Pardubice in 1992. With this training, he managed to improve his decathlon personal best to 7,642 points.
Roman Sebrle served in the Czech Armed Forces for two years, starting in 1995. During this compulsory military service, he joined the army sports club, TJ Dukla Praha, and was trained by Coach Ji?í Vana. Since then, he has continued to be a member of this group of decathletes.
In 1996, for the first time in his life, Roman Sebrle scored over 8,000 points by reaching 8,210 points in Prague. In 1997, he won the World University Games in Sicily, one of his first big wins. After a couple of years, he won bronze in the heptathlon event at the World Indoor World Championships held in Maebashi.
Roman Sebrle then went on to win the silver medal in the decathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a major milestone in his sporting career. The following year, he won the World Indoor Championships in Lisbon and created a new world record of 9,026 points. In 2002, he won both the European Indoor Championships, which were held in Vienna and Munich.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Roman Sebrle won his first gold in the decathlon by reaching 8,893 points. With this score, he broke the 20-year-old Olympic record set by the British decathlete, Daley Thompson, in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Czech Minister of Defense promoted him to the rank of major for his outstanding performance. He also received the title Czech Sportsman of the Year for this achievement.
In 2005, Roman Sebrle won the heptathlon event of the European Indoor Championships, which was held in Madrid. He continued his winning streak by coming first for the second time at the European Championships in 2006. A year later, he won his third European Indoor Championships gold medal in Birmingham. The sum of his personal bests in individual disciplines is 9,326 points, which is the third best after Dan O'Brien and Mike Smith. Roman Sebrle is the only decathlete to have finished 40 decathlon competitions with over 8,000 points and 20 competitions with over 8,500 points, as of October 2007. He was also voted the Best Czech Athlete of the Year five times in a row from 2001 to 2006.
Despite his thigh injury, Roman Sebrle ranked sixth in the decathlon event of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. For his painstaking performance, he earned an aggregate score of 8241
