Topic: Ivana Trump

Ivana Trump (born Ivana Marie Zelníčková (Czech pronunciation: ); February 20, 1949) is a former Olympic athlete, socialite, and fashion model noted for her marriage to mogul Donald Trump.

Ivana was born to Milos and Maria (née Francova) in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia, now Zlín, Czech Republic. From a very young age, her father nurtured and encouraged her skiing talent. In 1972, Ivana Zelníčková was selected as an alternate on the 1972 Czechoslovak Olympic Ski Team which allowed her several opportunities to travel outside the Communist Bloc. A year earlier, she married Austrian skier, Alfred Winklmayr, in order to obtain a foreign passport so that Communist leaders would not deem her a defector.

In the early 1970s she earned a master's degree in physical education from Charles University of Prague. In 1975 she left Czechoslovakia for Canada to be with a childhood friend, George Syrovatka, who owned a ski boutique there. For the following two years she lived in Montreal and worked as a model for some of Canada's top fur companies. In 1976 she divorced Winklmayr, left Syrovatka and moved to New York to promote the Montreal Olympics. It was in New York that she met Donald J. Trump, son of prominent real estate developer Fred Trump.