A Panel Discussion on the 2024 Všesokolský​ Slet in Prague
                   with American Sokol President Adam Witt, American Sokol Education Director Anna Cookove, Ausin Sappington, and others
 
Every six years, the Czech Sokol sponsors a Slet in Prague.  This year the 17th one was held in July.
 
 A Slet is a week-long event which includes a parade, performances of mass calisthenics and other events.  Sokol is known for its mass calisthenics, some with 2,000 people on the field at one time. They are intended to promote physical fitness and communal spirit. The performances include all ages and the participation of gymnasts from around the world. 
 
The motto of the All Sokol 2024 Slet was “SOKOL SPOJUJE”, "the gathering brings together".  This was meant to include sports, communities not only in the Czech Republic but from around the world, history with the present, art with sport and, finally, generations, people of all ages.
 
Sokol Milwaukee is sponsoring a panel discussion so that those of us that were not able to attend can better understand what a Slet is and how it is organized.
 
The Sokol organization is based on the idea of "a strong mind in a sound body" and aims to develop strength, alertness, and courage.  In the past, Sokol was a symbol of resistance against totalitarian regimes, especially the one in 1938, when the Sokols publicly supported President Edvard Beneš during the growing fascism. Exactly ten years later at the XI Slet, a record half a million trainees expressed their opposition to communism. Thousands of Sokol members paid with their lives for these attitudes.

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