The starting line of the marathon race at the 1952
Helsinki Olympics… British athlete Jim Peters, the world record holder, is the favorite
to win the race. While Peters is warming up, a skinny, balding runner comes up to him and introduces himself as Emil
Zátopek. Peters, of course, knows about Zátopek but this is the first time they
meet in person. Having already won the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in Helsinki, the
Czech runner is one of the greatest distance runners in the world.
An hour after the start, Zátopek catches up with Peters
who has been running in the lead from the start. “Jim, do you think the pace is
too fast?” he asks. “No, not fast enough.” replies Peters. He would later
explain that the pace was indeed fast and he only said it to mess with Zátopek.
But Zátopek, who is running his first marathon, takes him seriously and starts
to push the pace. In the end, Peters falls back and Zátopek wins the race
becoming the first person in history to win the 5,000, 10,000 and marathon
distance races at the same Olympics– a feat that has never been repeated since.
In his biography
about Zátopek titled Today We
Die A Little!, Richard Askwith
recounts the following story: It’s four years later and Zátopek is about to run
the marathon at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He’s now older and hasn't fully
recovered from a groin hernia operation. The race is about to start at 3 pm
with temperatures over 30 degrees celcius. As the athletes are putting vaseline on
their shoulders to block the sun, Zátopek already knows that this will be a
painful race. He turns to his competitors and says: “Men, today we die a
little!”.
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| Sparta Photography Club |
