Discover the legends of athletics in our monthly feature On the Shoulders of Giants.
Emil Zatopek
Ron Clarke’s invitation to participate in an athletics meeting in Prague in June 1966 was succeeded by a day of sightseeing and hospitality with the great Czech athlete Emil Zatopek as his guide. Zatopek had long been an admirer of the younger Australian and had followed his career closely. As the day wound down, Zatopek escorted Clarke through airport security and up the steps to his awaiting plane. The two exchanged farewells and Zatopek slipped a small parcel into Clarke’s hands before hastily turning and making his way off the flight. When Clarke eventually worked up the courage to open the package, he had initially thought it was either contraband or a message to the outside world from the then Soviet controlled state, he found an Olympic Gold medal. It was the Olympic Gold that Zatopek had won for the 10,000m in 1952. The medal had been newly inscribed ‘To Ron Clarke, Not out of friendship, but because you deserve it’. That act of incredible altruism begins to give us an insight into just how remarkable a person Emil Zatopek was. But what of Zatopek the athlete.
The rolling head with tongue dangling, wheezing heavily as he swayed side to side, Zatopek’s running style was as ungainly as it was distinct. Part of what made Zatopek a crowd favourite must have been this style though. We are so accustomed to the graceful effortless strides of champions, what the crowds saw with Zatopek was closer to the gallant efforts of a plucky underdog, his tortured expression always causing a stir and generating conversations. Looking back on the old footage it is clear to see that Zatopek is giving everything and how could you not root for someone like this. Zatopek once commented that he didn’t have the ability to smile and run at the same time so what you saw was him concentrating solely on going fast. And Zatopek could move, setting an incredible 18 world records over his career.
His crowning moment came at the ’52 Olympic games in Helsinki when he achieved a feat that surely will never be repeated. Zatopek won Gold in the 5,000m, 10,000m and Marathon, breaking the Olympic record in each event.
Zatopek was an innovator. His training equal parts impressive and bizarre. He would go to extreme lengths to improve his performance, everything from interval sessions that would last hours (famously 100 x 400m reps in a single session) to training in heavy boots, sprinting while holding his breath and running in the pitch dark. Zatopek brought a different level of commitment and dedication to the sport during the 40s and 50s and this matched with his undoubted talent led to incredible success.
Zatopek’s decision to enter the ’52 Olympic Marathon was only made a couple of days beforehand. He had never previously run the distance competitively and wasn’t considered one of the pre-race favourites. That accolade fell with British athlete Jim Peters. Peters had broken the Marathon World Record four times in the previous years and was hotly tipped for the gold. With no experience of the marathon, Zatopek’s approach was to closely track Peters and let the race unfold. At the start line, Zatopek approached Peters to introduce himself, exclaiming ‘I am Zatopek’, Peters was aware of who the legendary Zatopek was and had only moved to the marathon distance having watched the Czech athlete dominate his preferred 10,000 distance for years. He didn’t engage him in conversation rather just returning a polite but curt ‘nice to meet you’. As the race developed Peters, Zatopek and the Swede Gustaf Jansson took the lead. After moving through halfway, Zatopek strode up alongside Peters and asked him, ‘are you sure we’re going fast enough?’ This comment riled the British athlete who took off at pace, but unable to sustain the speed Peters faded and eventually collapsed at the side of the road by the time he had made it to 20 miles. Zatopek went from strength to strength and finished out the miles laughing and joking with onlookers before finishing in a time of 2 hours 23 minutes and 3 seconds.
Zatopek was highly regarded by his peers, well except perhaps by Jim Peters. He would often joke and make conversation with fellow athletes during races. He was not only the centre of attention in every race because he would be in leading contention but also for his style and personality. The French athlete Alain Mimoun was often described as Zatopek’s shadow throughout his career having finished second to the Czech on numerous occasions including at the Olympics and Europeans. By the ’56 Olympics in Melbourne Zatopek was past his best and went into the games injured. This was Mimoun’s chance. And the French athlete strode to victory in the Marathon, 1 minute 30 seconds ahead of Yugoslav Franjo Mihalic in second and over 4 mins ahead of Zatopek in 6th. At the finish line Mimoun ran to Zatopek shouting ‘I won’, ‘I won’. Zatopek strewn on the ground in complete exhaustion, dragged himself up, removed his cap and gave Mimoun his finest military salute. This Mimoun later reflected was the single greatest moment in his athletic career, not winning the Gold medal but rather a salute from the greatest.
Tadhg Crowley
18 August 2022