It was the Olympics: Zátopek, the legend!

In “Micro européen”, Jiri Hnilita talks about Emil Zátopek, a running legend, from long-distance running to marathons, he was called the locomotive. He was Czechoslovakian.

Emil ZhasTopek, four-time Olympic champion, a running legend, record holder at least 18 times. To evoke his story and pay tribute to him, decryption with Jiri Hnilita, director of the Czech Cultural Center in Paris, historian by training.

franceinfo: Zátopek, the locomotive, is it still a legend?

Jiri Hnilita: Absolutely, he is a sporting legend, he is a human legend with all the contexts of the 20th century. Because ZhasTopek and his sporting successes, especially in the 1950s, accompanied the birth of the Czechoslovak communist state, but also the Prague Spring movement; he became a face of it, then, pursued like all the representatives of the Prague Spring, he became in some way a famous victim of the reprisals of normalization, to then be decorated at the time of Vaclav Havel. So we can say a legend who accompanies the Czech 20th century.

We have to put it back in context: 1949, first world record, 1950, second world record in 1950 again, third world record and European championships in Brussels, 1951 new records, 1952, it’s an unprecedented Olympic triple, and between 55 and 57 he ends his career, but it all started in 1947, with the world military athletics championships in Berlin, and after 1948, the London Olympic Games.

Exactly, it was the time when the Iron Curtain fell, sport became much more than a sporting competition, it also became a representation issue. And it was a coincidence when this athlete, this marathon runner, Zhastopek appears at that time, because becoming a great sportsman, it already begins during the war in Zlin, a famous city of Bat’a, where the great talents of all styles from all over the world, met. And ZhasTopek therefore emerges in 47/48 as a great talent. But it must really be emphasized that he succeeded in his sporting life thanks to perseverance, thanks to his training which was absolutely atypical. Very specific. So it is not only a sporting success, a communist success, if you like, but it is a sporting success of someone who is persevering.

And precisely, this “specific” training, was it unique to him?

It’s his, there are anecdotes. At the beginning of his career, he was called the octopus, given the somewhat disorganized movements of his limbs. But there is one image in particular that always comes to mind. When I see Z’s traininghastopek, I see him running on a stadium in Zlin, pulling a tractor tire behind him.

It must be said that he is a career soldier?

Absolutely military, therefore, always dressed in training in the forest, in the fields, in the snow, in the rain, at all times. When we see today the training of athletes, we do not understand at all how he was able to succeed.

And this famous athlete who, one can say, has shaken up Europe with all his world records, his Olympic triples, is a man who takes part in the politics of Czechoslovakia in the Prague Spring by saying: No…

You are absolutely right, and I think it is a second part of Czechoslovakia, of communism, of socialism at that time, and especially the second part of Z’s life.hastopek. And I repeat, this is important, it is partly Emil Zhastopek, but she is also his wife Dana Zatopkovawho was an Olympic medalist in javelin throwing. And so they were two very high-level athletes who, as a couple, as a family, publicly protested against the Soviet occupation in 68, which cost them their professional lives, of course.

And then they faded into the shadows, of course. And Zátopek disappeared, until the return of democracy, when Vaclav Havel found Zátopek to make him the man of the nation?

Exactly, and I think that there are, besides the extraordinary exploits of Zhastopek, there is a side that is also very important. His face was so humanistic, he was always smiling, he was someone who really applied Olympic ideas as we still dream of today. So also for that, he became very famous and very popular, because he had an extremely friendly and open behavior.

Are we talking about him in the Czech Republic today?

Zhastopek, yes, there is a film, a cartoon, it becomes, becomes again, a great Czech sportsman from the time of our grandparents…