Marcel Merčiak was born on 31 August 1975 in Prešov. After graduating from the Gymnasium on Tarasa Ševčenka Street (today's Gymnasium Jan Adam Rayman) in Prešov, he started studying journalism at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University in Bratislava in 1993. After graduating with a Master's degree, he became an employee of Slovak Television on 1 July 1997, where he commentates on sports broadcasts (mainly football or biathlon). 

From 1996 to 2024, he participated in all fifteen Olympic Games (8 Summer and 7 Winter). In his admirable professional statistics stand out the records of commentating matches at seven World Cups and seven European Championships in football, 12 times he commentated the Champions League final.

After the establishment of RTVS in January 2011, the management of Director General Václav Mika entrusted him with the management of the RTVS Sports Department. He served in this position of the Sports Editor-in-Chief for 4 years and 11 months (from 1 February 2013 to the end of 2017). In 2021, he was given the position of Programme Head of the Sport circuit in the public media. 

He is a winner of the Zivot Weekly Award, winner of the Gab Zelenay Award from the Union of Slovak Journalists, 13-time winner of the OTO poll (3 times in the category of sports presenter, 8 times in the category of sports commentator and twice „Absolute OTO“). In 2014, the management of the then RTVS entrusted him with the moderation of the knowledge competition-entertainment show „What I Know“. Since 2013, he has been a member of the Sports Commission of the prestigious Crystal Wing Awards. Marcel Merciak has grown into an integrated journalistic personality, a true professional.

In addition to his television work, the great journalist has also become a freelance contributor to the online daily Standard, where he enriches readers with his commentaries, insights and interviews with famous athletes.

Source: https://www.stvr.sk/historia/osobnosti/marcel-merciak
Photo source: Author: the Bratislava County from Bratislava, Slovakia - Crystal Wing 2016, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46672694

He was born on 12 May 1901 in the Jewish family of the owner of the Berger Hotel in Prešov. He developed his artistic talent during his studies in Prague, Paris and Berlin, where he was employed by one of the largest daily newspapers. As a journalist, he attended the trial of Hitler in Munich in 1923 after his failed putsch attempt. After Hitler came to power, he had to flee Germany. He stayed briefly in Budapest, Paris and Geneva, where he attended meetings of the League of Nations. 

In 1935 he settled in London and began working for the Daily Telegraph. After World War II, he moved to New York, USA, and published in prestigious newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, Life magazine and Le Figaro. In the 1950s, Berger attended United Nations assemblies and drew almost every important leader who appeared there. He portrayed monarchs and famous personalities and film stars in the same idiosyncratic way. 

He created caricatures of Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower, Vyacheslav Mikhailov Molotov, Albert Einstein, John Paul II, Thomas S. Elliot, Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Vivien Leigh and many others. He has captured them all with elegant pencil strokes, with an eye for the uniqueness of the person and the characteristic detail. Alongside his cartoons, he was also a cartoonist of political jokes. 

His prolific work produced several books such as Famous Faces - From the Cartoonist's Sketchbook (1950), My Victims - How to Make a Cartoon (1952), Presidents - From Washington to the Present (1968). Berger's work is also on permanent display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Berger died on May 15, 1997, in New York City.

Source: Regional Library P. O. Hviezdoslav in Prešov; Micro-project.
Photo source: By unknown photographer - Original publication: unknown when, where or how first publishedImmediate source: https://spartacus-educational.com/ARTberger.htm, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76151688