Bouncing Czech

“It’s at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.” This famous quote from the famous runner Emil Zatopek may well put his greatness in Olympics history in proper perspective.

This 5-foot 8-inch athlete from the then undivided Czechoslovakia seemed to be destined to enter the Hall of Fame of world athletics as he won the 10,000m in the 1948 London Olympics at the age of 26 and then picked up a silver in the 5000m — two outstanding feats that took him to sporting immortality.

The “Bouncing Czech”, as he came to be known, dominated long distance running between 1948 and 1954, winning 38 consecutive 10,000m races, including 11 in 1949 alone besides setting 18 world records over various distances. Zatopek was the first athlete to run the 10,000m under 29 minutes and the 20K in one hour.

“A runner must run with dreams in his heart, not money in his pocket,” was another of his famous quotes. Zatopek did exactly that through his career. He and his wife, Dana Ingrova, were born on the same day. Dana won the javelin gold in the 1952 Helsinki Games.

Zatopek defied doctors’ advice to compete in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and eventually created an incredible record by winning the 5,000m, 10,000m and the marathon — all in the span of eight days. And he had never run a marathon before!

Zatopek’s father was a carpenter by profession and had some financial difficulties in taking care of his eight children. But Zatopek put behind all this and charted his own course to sporting history after a humble beginning as a worker in a Bata shoe factory.

Critics recall that Zatopek was never a graceful runner. He was dubbed the ‘Beast of Prague’ because of his distorted facial expression while running.

At the age of 34, Zatopek was relatively old to compete in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He skipped the 5000m and the 10000m events and focussed on the marathon only to finish sixth. But his spirit was perhaps symbolic of Pierre de Coubertin’s famous words: “The important thing is not to win, but to take part.”

V. V. Subrahmanyam