PRAGUE – Dana Zatopkova made her way slowly around the Running Mall supported on one arm by Prague International Marathon President Carlo Capalbo and by a teal Lofstrand cane on the other, gazing at pieces of her husband’s memorabilia and black-and-white photos from their past.

For the 1952 Olympic javelin champion and wife of late Olympic legend Emil Zatopek, this special exhibit on loan from the Czech National Museum ahead of Sunday’s Volkswagen Prague Marathon served as a stark reminder of her present.

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 “The first thing that I think when I see everything is that it’s a pity that I am too old and that I cannot do anything like it anymore,” the 93-year-old Zatopkova joked. 



Zatopkova did allow herself a moment of wistfulness, recalling the magical Helsinki Games during which she won her first Olympic medal and her husband scored an unprecedented and unequaled triple, winning the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon golds all in Olympic-record fashion. In particular, she recalled July 20, the day the two of them became Czechoslovakia’s “golden couple.”

“The most beautiful thing that I remember from Helsinki was that day, after the races were finished, I was sitting by the lake and playing with my medal in my hand,” Zatopkova said. “I thought, ‘I am a winner,’ and I was so happy that after Emil I could make the same achievement. Everything was so beautiful that day, you couldn’t even imagine the good finish like that. Sitting by the lake afterward, it was like a fairy tale.”

The competition day was quite nerve-wracking for the then-29-year-old. While Emil took to the track for the 10,000m race, Zatopkova was torn between supporting her husband or mentally preparing for her own competition in the javelin.

“I was closeted in the changing room alone trying to concentrate on the ordeal ahead and trying to stay composed but it was impossible,” Zatopkova said in a 2012 Radio Prague interview. “So I listened to the crowd cheering trying in vain to figure out who they were cheering for. 



“When the noise died down I could wait no longer. I jumped up and ran out of the changing room bumping into the Soviet coach Romanov. Who won? I blurted out. And I remember he looked at me dumbfounded because of course Emil had won and his own wife had not gone to watch.”

After the medal ceremony, Dana caught up with Emil on his way to the locker room and congratulated him. He showed her the gold medal and she snatched it out of his hand, put it in her bag and took it with her to the javelin field for good luck.

Not long thereafter she returned with two gold medals, Emil’s from the 10,000m and her own after winning the javelin with a throw of 50.47m/165-7.



“He was waiting for me at the bus and I will never forget how he looked at me,” Zatopkova told Radio Prague four years ago. “It was as if he had never seen me before, as if I were a revelation. And later he teased me about throwing the javelin 50 meters because I was so happy over his victory. He said he had made a significant contribution to my gold medal because he inspired me.”

Always able to give as good as she got, Zatopkova said her response to Emil was, “Oh you inspired me, did you? Okay, go inspire some other girl and see if she throws a javelin fifty meters!"

Good natured ribbing aside, the Zatopeks shared a lovely evening together on the banks of one of Finland’s “Land of A Thousand Lakes.” In the years and decades that followed, the couple shared their medals with others during their many presentations and public appearances. 

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But if today Zatopkova wanted to view her or Emil’s medals, she would have to visit the National Museum, to which she entrusted them.

“We were always giving our medals to the people to touch the medal and see the medal,” she said yesterday. “The medal is actually gold on top and inside is silver. After so many presentations, people were touching the medal so much that we lost all of the gold on it. After that, I donated the medals to the national museum to restore them and put the gold back.” 

Like her Olympic medal, Zatopkova may have aged and become worn physically, but symbolically she remains a shining athletics jewel in the Czech Republic. 

“I do have a very beautiful life because I had a sporting life,” Zatopkova said. “I am very happy with it.”

The Prague Marathon will be live-streamed and archived ​on FloTrack Sunday April 8.