Sportsman as a Celebrity in Course of Time

This diploma thesis discusses the process of celebritization of sportsmen. This phenomenon is illustrated with a form of the media coverage of sporting career of gymnast Věra Čáslavská, speed skater Martina Sáblíková and tennis players Jan Kodeš and Tomáš Berdych. The thesis compares socialist journals Československý sport and Lidová demokracie and current periodicals Sport and Lidové noviny. The work deals with the characteristics of the concept of celebrity, history of sports celebrities, types of people who are likely to become a celebrity, and social status of athletes. The articles related to the selected sportsmen were examined through content analysis. Researched texts were divided into prepared categories (professional life, lifestyle, relationships, love life, appearance, personality, children, health, advertising). This quantitative research was followed by qualitative research methods, which focused on athletes in the advertising industry. The method consisted of examining the articles about advertising activities of athletes. The work also deals with the description of life and sports career of gymnast Věra Čáslavská. The information comes from the media coverage of contemporary prints, which describes not only her athletic career, but also the period after 1990