For the first time, he became more aware of himself in 2003, when he became junior champion of the world and Europe. As a result, he also looked at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, but the Olympic race did not finish due to the defect. In 2008 he entered the Elite category and gradually began to overcome the best results of the Czech bikers. At the World Championships in St. Petersburg, Wendel finished eleventh, improving three places to the best Czech result of Miloslav Kvasnička in 1991.In 2009, he finished the 11th European Championship, at the World Cup in Canberra, Australia, the ninth. The medal position in the World Cup race has not been successful yet. In 2010, the first major medal successes came. In July, he won the title of European Champion in Israeli Haifa.At the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 he defended the gold in the cross country race. Shortly after the start, he entered the front group and gradually formed a leading couple along with Nino Schurter, who was slowly passing by. In the penultimate sixth lap, Kulhavý was unable to respond to the arrival of a Swiss cyclist and a gap grew gradually between the two rivals. Jaroslav Kulhavý, however, watched his second place and won the silver medal.
He won the gold medal in the cross-country event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the silver medal four years later at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is the overall winner of the UCI World Cup in 2011, along with taking 3rd place in 2010 and 2012. In 2013 and 2015 Kulhavy partnered with Christoph Sauser to win the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage race ("Tour de France of mountain biking") Kulhavy raced the Absa Cape Epic with Sauser again in March, 2017, but their bid for a third win together was foiled by Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann (Scott-Sram), who eventually prevailed by eight minutes. In June 2014 he took the world title in mountain bike marathon. At the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 he came in second in the cross country race. Shortly after the start, he entered the front group and gradually formed a leading couple along with Nino Schurter, who was slowly passing by. In the penultimate sixth lap, Kulhavý was unable to respond to the arrival of a Switzerland cyclist and a gap grew gradually between the two rivals. Jaroslav Kulhavý, however, watched his second place and won the silver medal.
