Zátopek recalled that "One day, the factory sports coach, who was very strict, pointed at four boys, including me, and ordered us to run in a race.

He joined a local athletic club where he developed his own training program modeled on what he had read about the great Finnish Olympian Paavo Nurmi.

Zátopek's final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the marathon for the first time in his life, and won.

After a punishing first fifteen kilometres, in which Peters knew he had overtaxed himself, Zátopek asked the Englishman what he thought of the race thus far.

Zátopek running in his first Marathon, beat second placed Reinaldo Gorno (Argentina) by 2:01 minutes.

[7][9] Zátopek attempted to defend his marathon gold medal in 1956; however, he suffered a groin injury while training and was hospitalized for six weeks.

When asked about his tortured facial expressions, Zátopek is said to have replied that "It isn't gymnastics or figure skating, you know."

In addition he would train in any weather, including snow, and would often do so while wearing heavy work boots as opposed to special running shoes.

[9] Emil and Dana were the witnesses at the wedding ceremony of Olympic gold medalists Olga Fikotová and Harold Connolly in Prague in 1957.

Emil had spoken to the Czechoslovak president Antonín Zápotocký to request help in getting national heroine Olga a permit to marry the American Connolly, at the height of the Cold War.

Zátopek knew the bad luck that Clarke had faced; he held many middle-distance track and field world records and had attempted to join his idol in the record books, but had fallen short in winning an Olympic gold medal (he was beaten by Billy Mills in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history).

The company was "Stavební Geologie", and he was immediately put to work prospecting for natural resources around Bohemia, infrequently being able to visit his wife in Prague.

It is also rumoured that Zátopek had a short stint at refuse collection, but was let go as he was unable to complete a round without a horde of citizens insisting on helping him, though no evidence exists of this ever happening.

In 1977, after 5 years of working and living away from his wife and friends, Zátopek's spirit was broken and the communist government, no longer deeming him a threat, allowed him back to Prague with the offer of a further humiliating and menial job in the ČSTV (Czechoslovak Union of Physical Education).

Using his gift as a linguist, the ČSTV put him to work monitoring foreign publications for the latest developments in sports science and training techniques.

[20] French writer Jean Echenoz published a novelized biography of Zátopek titled Courir (Running).