Czech RepublicBiography
Czech Locomotive is one of the greatest athlete of all time... On and off the track he became the sports icon. He set 18 world records over various distances including every record from 5K to 30K, and won four Olympic gold medals and one silver. The only athlete to complete the first triple in the distance events in the same Olympics (1952). He was the first to run a 10K under 29 minutes and the first to run 20K in one hour. Between 1948 and 1956, he won 38 consecutive 10,000m races, including 11 in 1949 alone. Participated three Olympic Games (1948, 1952, and 1956). Dana Ingrova a javelin thrower (Dana Zatopkova), later Emil married to her. Fellow Czech team member and they shared the same birthday, September 19th. Shortly after the Olympics, they married on that day in 1948. At the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, the pair made history; she became the first Czech woman to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics. Emil completed the triple in long distance events.
PBs
5000m: 13:57
10,000m: 28:54.2
Marathon: 2:23:04
TRIVIA
♦ Officer in the Czech army.
♦ The pioneer of interval training, workouts like: 10 x 200m + 40 x 400m + 10 x 200m
♦ In 1946, he entered his first international race but was stuck in Prague with no way to get to Berlin. He decided to bike there, and won the race.
♦ Gifted away one of his 10,000m gold medals to Australian Ron Clarke after he had a lot of unsuccessful run.
♦ He used to speak six languages.
♦ Books on him:
Running by Jean Echenoz
Today We Die A Little: The Rise and Fall of Emil Zatopek by Richard Askwith
Zatopek! Zatopek! Zatopek! The Life and Times of the World’s Greatest Distance Runner by Bob Phillip
(Text by Evren Ozuyener)