Running Profiles – Emil Zatopek

“If you want to win a race, try the 100 meters. If you want to win an experience, try the marathon.” - Emil Zatopek.

Emil Zatopek is one of the true legends of running. Not only did he win multiple Olympic gold medals, break records over all distances and establish new training methods, he was an incredible person apart from his running.

Emil was born in Czechoslovakia on September 19, 1922. In his lifetime, the Czech Republic went from being a newly-created nation after World War I, to a democratic republic, to a claimed territory of Nazi Germany and later to a Communist State after World War II. His childhood was spent working in a shoe factory prior to joining the Czech army. In the army, Zatopek used his free time to take off on runs into the woods. Runs of upwards of twenty miles. After a day of military training.

1952 Olympics

“After all those dark days of the war, the bombing, the killing, the starvation, the revival of the Olympics was as if the sun had come out…Men and women who had just lost five years of their life were back again.” – Emil Zatopek on the ’52 Olympics

In the 1952 Olympics the Czech team was so small that Zatopek had his pick of the distance events. No nation thought much of the Czech runners anyway, and especially not a “bald, self-coached thirty-year old apartment dweller” as Christoper McDougall puts it in his book Born to Run. Emil’s own doctor told him not to compete in the Olympic events due to a previous gland infection that would supposedly leave him to weak to effectively compete.

Emil signed up for the 5000 meters and won gold with a new Olympic record. Then he ran the 10,000 meters and won a gold medal with a new Olympic record. After winning two golds, he decided he would try his first marathon. The day of the race was very hot, far more so than what  most marathoners in the race were accustomed. Zatopek was running side-by-side with the current marathon world record holder, British runner Jim Peters, at mile ten of the race. Zatopek wasn’t sure if the pace was too fast since he was so inexperienced at marathons, so he asked Peters what he thought about the current pace. Peters, who was already ahead of his world record pace and looking for an edge in the race, told Zatopek they were going too slow.

What did Zatopek do? He took his advice, picked up the pace and won the gold medal with a new record. As for the former record holder Jim Peters? He had to drop out of the race because he was unable to maintain the blistering pace he had set at the outset of the race.

Later Years

Czechoslovakia was in the midst of a pro-democracy movement in the late 1960s. Zatopek supported the democracy movement and when the Soviet Army rolled into Prague he was given a choice. Become a Soviet sports ambassador or clean toilets in a uranium min. Zatopek chose the mine.

An Australian named Ron Clarke eventually broke Zatopek’s 10k world record, but failed to medal or place in any big Olympic or world championship races. As Clarke’s career wound to a close, he was widely considered a failure in his own native Australia for failing to win an important race. After the ’68 Mexico City games and another failure, he paid a visit to Zatopek in Prague. As Clarke was leaving Emil hid a package in his suitcase, gave Clarke and hug and said “because you deserve it.” The package in the suitcase? Zatopek’s 10000 meter gold medal. Keep in mind, Clarke was the man who broke his record and this was at a time when Zatopek was cleaning toilets and everyone in the distance running world had essentially forgotten about him. Zatopek still had the compassion to recognize that Clarke deserved accolade and recognition even though Clarke’s own countrymen mocked him for not winning the so-called important races of his career.

Legacy

Zatopek was also the first proponent of interval training, essentially running short, fast distances a repeated number of times to increase speed. This was revolutionary at the time, when it was widely considered the only was to improve distance running was to put in long, slow mileage over and over. Today intervals are part of every serious distance runner’s training arsenal.

“Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast. Everyone said, ‘Emil you are a fool!’ But when I won the first European Championship, they said ‘Emil, you are a genius!’” – Zatopek on interval training.

As important as that has become to running, Emil Zatopek’s true legacy is not interval training or his incredible records and medals. His true legacy is the compassion for his competitors and absolute love of the sport of running. Emil never competed to win, he competed because he loved running and loved challenging himself, regardless if it was an Olympic event or a twenty-mile run through a Czech forest in the middle of winter.

His records have since been broken, his running accomplishments outdone and his training methods refined and improved. However, few serious running fans and historians will ever say there has been anyone who has contributed more to the spirit and camaraderie of the sport of running.

Read More:

• 10k Truth Quotes by Emil Zatopek
• Running Past – Emil Zatopek profile
• Emil Zatopek’s 5k meter victory in the 1952 Olympics Video

photo from Wikimedia Commons