A Bridge To Long Ago

"Sure," Emil would reply.

And off he would go.

"He took me on this 25-kilometer run through the snow one Sunday," Dana says. "Halfway through the run, I threw myself on the ground. In the snow. I said, 'Go ahead. I'm just going to lie here and die.' He said, 'No, you're not.' He attached a rope from his belt to mine. He pulled me up. He dragged me the rest of the way. I did not move my legs. Gave him no help. He dragged me. He was tired at the end of that day. For once."

At the Olympics in Helsinki, the local story became the world's story. Emil had noticed that the schedule offered the possibility of running the 10,000, the 5,000 and the marathon. There were two days of rest between the first two events, then three before the marathon. He would try all three. Dana noticed something else about the schedule. The 5,000 final would be run at the same time as the women's javelin final. How could she possibly compete at the same time he was running? How could she focus her attention? She was not supposed to do well anyway. Would she now become an embarrassment?

"A lucky thing happened," she says. "On the day of the final, a Hungarian hammer thrower set a world record. This moved the field events schedule back because the officials had to go through all of those precise measurements to certify the record."

She still had not performed when the 5,000 was run. She was waiting in the tunnel leading into the stadium. All she could hear was noise followed by silence. Who had won? A Russian trainer, Markov, came past. Who had won? Markov said, "Ah, that Emil. He's a nice boy." By the time the medal was awarded and the Czech anthem was played, she had come into the stadium. She was able to yell to her husband—who had run a 14:06.6—as he took a victory lap.

"Emil," she said. "Give me the medal. I will put it in my bag for luck."

She carried the bag, as well as her emotions, to the competition. On the first of her six throws, wonder of spectacular wonders, she propelled the javelin far enough to win the gold medal. All her adrenaline seemed to surge for this one huge throw. The distance was 165 feet, seven inches.

There was a Soviet woman; each time she threw, she came closer and closer," Dana says. "On her final throw, she was 46 centimeters [19 inches] short. Of all things, I did not expect I would win."

In the stadium, Dana did a cartwheel that was caught by the photographers. Emil had already won the 10,000, in 29:17.0, wearing out his opponents one by one and winning by about 100 yards, and he finished the Olympics by winning the marathon. It was the first marathon he ever had run. He ran up front from the start. At one point he asked the leader, Jim Peters of England, how the pace was. After Peters said it was too slow, Zatopek zipped by him and took the lead. He never took any refreshment. He ran the way he ran any other race. He won by 2� minutes, in 2:23:03.2.