Emil Zátopek

Photo of Emil Zátopek

Emil Zátopek (19 September 1922 - 22 November 2000) was a Czechoslovak runner from town Kopřivnice. He is mostly known for winning 3 gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympic games in Helsinki. He won in 5,000 metres, 10,000 metres runs and in marathon. He never ran a marathon before. But he decided at the last minute to start with others. He set former record with time 2:23:03,2.

Personal life

Zátopek was born in Kopřivnice. He finished Industrial high school in Zlin. He studied at the Military Academy in Prague. His wife was Dana, also an olympic athlete. They were married in 1948. In Helsinki she competed in jevelin. She won a gold medal at the same day as Zátopek. His olympic rivals (friends) called him "Czech Locomotive". In 1997 he was called the best Czech athlete of 20th century. Then in 1999, he was declared the best Olympian in Czech history. Altogether he won six Olympic medals, five European Championship and he broke the records for 18 times. His life credo was: "Are you running out of breath? Go faster!"

Career

His Career began at an elementary school in Zlin. There he ran at school events with good results. He accepted an invitation to train with Zlin´s athletes. He mostly trained by himself with his own running system. He ran 400 metres (1,300 ft) sections with multiple repetitions. In 1943 he tried his first 5,000 metres run and the year after that he set his first record at 2,000 metres track. His most successful event were Summer Olympic games in 1952 where he won 3 gold medals. After that he went through an operation for a hernia. Zátopek´s athlete career ended in 1958 then he worked as a minister (Christianity).

Emil Zátopek Media

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  Zátopek displaying his trademark expression of pain (1951).

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  Grave of Emil Zátopek in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm