Jiří „Jirka" Ježek, born on 16 October 1974 in Prague, is a legend of para-cycling. At the age of eleven, he lost his right leg below the knee after a car accident. Instead of giving up, he found his way to the bike: he began racing in 1994 after meeting Josef Lachman, whose stories drew him to cycling. Thanks to his sponsors, he was able to leave his job as a prosthetics technician and become a professional cyclist.

At Sydney 2000, he won two gold medals on the track, in the 1 km time trial and the 4 km individual pursuit, and added a silver in the road race. At Athens 2004, he won the road race, and at Beijing 2008, as captain of the Czech team, he took gold in both the pursuit and the time trial. After London 2012, he became the most successful cyclist in Paralympic history. In total, he has won 6 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze Paralympic medals, as well as six World Championship titles. He also competed successfully against able-bodied cyclists, and the Spanish daily Marca ranked him among the 100 greatest athletes of the 21st century, alongside names such as Phelps, Bolt and Federer.

Today, he devotes himself to charity projects and motivational talks, and he told his life story in his autobiography Frajer.

Jirka Ježek