Ján Franek

Ján Franek ( born April 14, 1960 in Žilina ) is a former Czechoslovak boxer in the Light Middleweight. He won an Olympic bronze medal in 1980.

Ján Franek was during his competitive career around 1,77 m tall and reached his greatest success in 1980. In February he defeated in a country fighting the Hungarian Imre Némedi. In June, he won the Czechoslovak championships and launched in August at the 22th Summer Olympics in Moscow. There he came through three early victories against Benedetto Gravina from Italy, Scheliu Stefanov from Bulgaria and Wilson Kaoma from Zambia to the semifinals, where he himself prematurely lost to the Cuban Armando Martínez and thus was eliminated with a bronze medal from the games. In November, he still won the Finnish Tammer Tournament in Tampere.

In September 1981 he won the Vaclav Prochazka tournament in Ostrava, where he was able to prevail against, among others starters from Cuba, Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. In June 1984, he even won an international match against Germany, by knockout win against Gerhard Schubert.

From July 1991 to April 1992, he played eight professional bouts in Italy, Germany and Austria. His most significant victory was a knockout win in round 5 against international German champions Niyazi Aytekin.

Others

He is the older brother of boxer Michal Franek. His daughter is the Miss Slovakia 2009, Barbora Franekоvá.