In just eight days during the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Emil Zatopek, born in Koprivnice, Morovaia, on September 22, 1922, won the 5,000m, the 10,000m and the marathon. No-one had ever achieved such a stunning treble before, no-one has since and no-one is ever likely to.

Zatopek's story is the stuff of schoolboy comics. Working in a local shoe factory at the age of 18, he was ordered to run a race to represent the company he worked for. He had no urge to do so and complained of a bad knee and a cold. The company doctor said he had neither and Zatopek took up his place in the race only to emerge runner-up.

He was hooked and took to training in the most unconventional of styles; he ran on the spot in a running bath, he ran up and down the steps of stadiums until he collapsed exhausted, he ran with a gas mask on to improve his lung capacity and he even ran in army boots to make his legs work all the harder.

When he was recruited into the new Czechoslovakian army after the Second World War, he was made a full-time runner to become one of the first socialist-style "amateur" athletes. When he emerged at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where he won the 10,000m and finished second to Gaston Reiff, the first Belgian to win an Olympic track and field title, in the 5,000m, Zatopek amazed the world not only with his talent but the facial contortions that made it appear he was in agony as he ran.

The many media comments on this prompted one from the runner himself: "Other athletes come to me and say 'Emil, it is horrible to see you run. Track and field is a culture of natural movement, not this.' But I was interested in my finish, not in being beautiful." In 1952 in Helsinki, Zatopek retained his 10,000m crown comfortably over Alain Mimoun, the Frenchman who had also finished second in 1948.

Zatopek then entered the 5,000m and the mind games began; in the heats he chatted to his rivals and even slowed down at some stages of the races to wave people on traffic-police style, much to the amusement of the crowd. The playing stopped in the final, when he beat Mimoun yet again. Next for Zatopek came the marathon, which he had never run before the Games.

He took his cue from Jim Peters, of Britain, who was a race favourite. Peters set a blistering early pace and paid the price at 20 miles, when he had to withdraw with cramp. Zatopek went on to win in an Olympic record of 2hrs 23mins 03.2secs. Four years later, he returned to race in the marathon just six weeks after a hernia operation. He finished sixth behind the Frenchman who finally got the gold he had sought against Zatopek for so long - Mimoun.

Back in Russian-occupied Czechoslovakia, Zatopek, who spoke out for freedon, was forced to dig ditches for a living. A linguist, he was later found a job in the sports ministry translating foreign publications that might contain coaching hints from abroad for use in the Soviet bloc's sports machine.

CRAIG LORD
The Times