Life story
Emil Zátopek was born in 1922 in Kopřivnica. He came to running almost by chance — in 1941 he finished second in a race in Zlín. Three years later he was already breaking Czech records at 2000, 3000 and 5000 meters.
He entered the Olympic stadium for the first time in London in 1948, where he won the ten-kilometer run. He became a legend at the games in Helsinki in 1952: within eight days he won the five kilometers, ten kilometers and finally the marathon, which he had never run before. No one has repeated three gold medals from a single games in distance running.
He held world records at five kilometers, twenty, twenty-five and thirty kilometers and in the hour run. His wife was javelin thrower Dana Zátopková, who won gold in Helsinki just moments after his victory in the five-kilometer race. He ended his sports career in 1958.
In 1968 he was among the signatories of the Manifesto of Two Thousand Words and had to leave the army; he then spent six years drilling wells for construction geology. He died after a long illness on 21 November 2000 in Prague at the age of 78.
Constellation of Life
Important milestones that shaped their journey.