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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.
KEYWORDS:
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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20 Sport Mondial, no. 9, November 1956, 24.
21 International Association of Athletics Federations.
22 David Hassan, ‘Introduction: What makes a Sporting Icon?’, Sport in History 33, no. 4 (2013): 417–26. To answer this question, Hassan points particularly to the achievement of exceptional performances, the fact that the hero is a guide for other sportsmen, that he attempts new things or is described as an ordinary person with whom we can identify. The connection with war is likewise mentioned as being a structuring element of hero construction.
23 Roland Barthes, Mythologies (Paris : Seuil, 1957).
24 In the documentary Zatopek produced by David Ondricek in 2016 (Ceska televise : Lucky Man Films), we can see how much the runner was idolised, but also how he was used as a model for the young for propaganda purposes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gccUUqjszPs (accessed 9 November 2020). A different film produced by Pavel Blumenfeld (1954) shows the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIZlY9QBF8w (accessed 9 November 2020).
25 Le Miroir des sports, no. 381, 1 December 1952.
26 Respectively winners of 12 and 4 Olympic medals.
27 Le Miroir des sports, no. 381, 1 December 1952.
28 Ibid.
29 L’Équipe, 28 July 1952.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 Paavo Nurmi lit the Olympic cauldron during the 1952 Games. The torch was passed to him by Hannes Kolehmainen.
33 Patrick Clastres, ‘Pierre de Coubertin: The Inventor of the Olympic tradition’, in Global Sport Leaders. A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management, eds. Emmanuel Bayle & Patrick Clastres (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 33–60.
34 Paavo Nurmi’s interval training consisted in running a long distance of 10 to 20 kms in a forest, during which he would run 6×400 metres at a higher speed than his competition speed.
35 Miroir Sprint, no. 327, 15 September 1952.
36 Emil Zatopek, Muj Trening a zavodeni, (unknown editor, 1955).
37 Véronique Billat, ‘L’apport de la science dans l’entraînement sportif : l’exemple de la course de fond’, STAPS 54 (2001) : 23–43.
38 Raymond Pointu & Olivier Barrot, Dieux et démons du stade (Paris : Calmann-Lévy, 1988), 151.
39 Jean Vivès, ‘L’étude biologique du coureur Zatopek’, L’entraîneur d’athlétisme, no. 5–6, (1954) : 26–7.
40 Timothy Noakes, Lore of running (Oxford: Oxford university press, 2003). The author reports that this was namely the case for Englishman Gordon Pirie.
41 Emil Zatopek, cited by Eric Newsholme, Tony Leech, & Glenda Duester, La course à pied, bases scientifiques, entraînement et performances (Bruxelles : De Boeck Université, 1998), 234.
42 Patrice Delbourg, Zatopek et ses ombres (Bordeaux : Le castor astral, 1998), 21–2.
43 Zatopek magazine, no. 2, April-June 2007, 62–65.
44 Pointu & Barrot, Dieux et démons du stade, 151.
45 Sylvain Dufraisse, Les héros du sport. Une histoire des champions soviétiques (années 1930-années 1980) (Ceyzérieu : Champ Vallon, 2019).
46 Miroir Sprint, no. 327, 15 September 1952.
47 Sport Mondial, no. 9, November 1956.
48 Alain Billouin, Alain Mimoun. Toute une vie à courir (Paris : Solar, 2016), 108.
49 Le Miroir des sports, no. 381, 1 December 1952.
50 Ibid.
51 Emmanuelle Jollivet & Luc Robène, ‘Fosbury contre ventral ou la technique sportive comme vecteur idéologique’, in L’homme en mouvement, eds. Luc Robène & Yvon Léziart (Paris : Chiron, 2006), 195–231.
52 Dino Numerato, ‘Sport as Resistance: ‘Ice Hockey Protests’ in Czechoslovakia in 1969’, in Sport and the Construction of Identities, Proceedings of the XIth CESH congress (Vienna: Verlag Turia + Kant, 2006), 704–12.
53 Patrick Clastres, ‘Sport, diplomatie et guerre froide. L’exemple des Jeux olympiques d’Helsinki 1952’, in Culture, médias, pouvoirs aux États-Unis et en Europe occidentale de 1945 à 1981, ed. Philippe Poirier (Dijon : Éditions Universitaires de Dijon), 27–32.
54 Jérôme Gygax, ‘Diplomatie culturelle et sportive américaine : persuasion et propagande durant la guerre froide’, Relations Internationales 123, (2005) : 87–106.
55 Emmanuel Bosak & Josef Pondelik, Emil Zatopek (Prague: Orbis, 1953), 20.
56 Ibid., 11.
57 In an interview with the Zatopek magazine of January-March 2007, his wife Dana underlined the fact that having high-level athlete status gave certain advantages in that they could travel. The couple owned a small mountain chalet, as well as their main home.
58 Emil Zatopek thus rose from the rank of captain to commander, then lieutenant-colonel and colonel.
59 Congress of Vienna (1952), Council of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship (1953).
60 Actes du congrès des peuples pour la paix, Vienne, 12-19 décembre 1952 (Paris : Éditions défense de la paix, 1953), 884.
61 Armour Milne, Le sport tchécoslovaque (1945-1955) (Prague : Orbis, 1955), 20.
62 Bosak & Pondelik, Emil Zatopek, 12–13.
63 L’Humanité, 28 February 1953.
64 Roland Barthes, Mythologies (Paris : Le Seuil, 1957), 103–13.
65 Sudhir Hazareesingh, ‘Mythe’, in Dictionnaire d’histoire culturelle de la France contemporaine, eds. Christian Delporte, Jean-Yves Mollier & Jean-François Sirinelli (Paris : PUF, 2010), 562–6.
66 Zatopek magazine, no. 2, April-June 2007, 62–65.
67 Erich Bertleff, À mains nues (Paris : Stock, 1968), 167.
68 Le Monde and Le Figaro, 23 August 1968.
69 https://www.ina.fr/notice/voir/CAF94087175 (accessed 9 November 2020).
70 Jean-Christophe Rosé, L’odyssée du coureur de fond (Paris : Kuiv Productions, 1997).
71 Pierre Naudin, Zatopek : le terrassier de Prague (Paris : Le Légendaire, 1972), 194–5.
72 L’Humanité, 25 October 1969.
73 Zatopek magazine, no. 2, April-June 2007, 62–65.
74 L’Équipe, L’Équipe raconte 70 ans de passion (Paris : Robert Laffont, 2015), 90–1.
75 Ibid.
76 Barthes, Mythologies, 192.
77 Jean Échenoz, Ravel (Paris : Éditions de Minuit, 2006) ; Des Éclairs (Paris : Éditions de Minuit, 2010).
78 Zatopek magazine, no. 9, January-March 2009, 61.
79 Thomas Bauer & Yohann Fortune, ‘Revisiting the Emil Zatopek Myth: Running by Jean Echenoz’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 34, no. 16 (2017): 1703–18.
80 Naudin, Zatopek : le terrassier de Prague, 205–8.
81 Delbourg, Zatopek et ses ombres.
82 Mike Huggins, ‘The Visual in Sport History: Approaches, Methodologies and Sources’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 32, no. 15 (2015): 1813–30.
83 Gilles Goetghebuer & Palix, Zatopek et compagnie, les dix plus belles histoires de course à pied (Uccle : Éditions sport et santé, 2012).
84 Jean-Marc Lemonnier, Yohann Fortune & Frédéric Dutheil, ‘L’olympe sportif d’un dessinateur de BD : Emil Zatopek et Marcel Couchaux’, Loisir et Société / Society and Leisure 41, no. 2 (2018) : 192–213.
85 Ibid., 199.
86 Zatopek magazine, no. 2, April-June 2007, 62–65. ‘Emil only wore shoes when he was training for the 1948 London Games […]. As for the rest, they’re just old legends recounted by Czech journalists’.
87 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE6wX5V_MGQ (accessed 9 November 2020).
88 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO8YkbZHDWE (accessed 9 November 2020).
89 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25_P3xOPRDw (accessed 9 November 2020).
90 https://www.theatre-contemporain.net/spectacles/Mimoun-et-Zatopek/videos/ (accessed 9 November 2020).
91 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0S1k5L74Hs (accessed 9 November 2020).
92 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W08pvIvp5NM (accessed 9 November 2020).
93 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdBYry35l5k ou https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAPm7kpB4jM (accessed 9 November 2020).
94 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3bYf-udMxc (accessed 9 November 2020).
95 Zatopek magazine, no. 25, February-April 2013, 34.
96 Zatopek magazine, no. 2, April-June 2007, 65.
97 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09IIO6ColH4 (accessed 9 November 2020).
98 While the sporting myth is embodied in champions, it can also concern a stadium, jersey, event, meet, etc. Depending on the case, the categorisation system presented here would need to be adjusted.
99 Jaime Schultz, ‘’Stuff from which legends are made’: Jack Trice Stadium and the politics of memory’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 24, no. 6 (2007): 715–48.
100 Antoine Prost, ‘Comment l’histoire fait-elle l’historien ?’, Vingtième Siècle. Revue d’histoire 65, no. 1 (2000): 3–12.
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Notes on contributors
Yohann Fortune
Yohann Fortune is an associate professor in the history of sport at University Rennes 2 and a member of the VIPS² Laboratory. His work focuses on the establishment, dissemination and circulation of sporting practices by institutions (schools, federations, clubs, etc.) and the media. In 2018, he co-published Reconstructions physique et sportive en France sous la IVe République with Frédéric Dutheil and Jean-Marc Lemonnier at Presses Universitaires de Caen.