Emil Zatopek in the pantheon of long-distance running: the creation of a sporting myth

Abstract

ABSTRACT Like numerous sportspeople, Emil Zatopek (1922-2000) is one of those figures who, through their achievements and dramatic life trajectories, succeed in entering the collective memory as heroes whose names are passed down through the generations. At the turn of the 1940s-1950s, his performances were widely hailed in the sports press when he became famous at the Helsinki Olympic Games (1952) by winning three gold medals, and the man himself gave rise to popular fervour and identification. In the context of the Cold War, propaganda was quick to focus on him, triggering a form of heroisation which would lead, over time, to transfiguring the champion and creating the myth that is still alive today. Based on press articles, biographies, documentaries and propaganda works, as well as on advertisements, novels, comic books and other cultural material related to Emil Zatopek from the 1950s to the present day, this article invites reflection upon the rewriting processes inherent in the creation of the sporting myth and aims to grasp any of its possible invariants. It thus explains how the sportsperson goes successively from the status of champion to that of hero and then myth, and defines the criteria which correspond to each status.