Emil the Terrible

Even though I read The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner when I was a teenager and even ran on the high school cross-country team one year, I had never heard about "Emil the Terrible" until this week. 

Emil Zátopek was a Czech runner who won a total of five medals in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. He was nicknamed the "Czech Locomotive" due to his audible wheezing and panting during a race. He was also known as "Emil the Terrible" because of his tortured facial expressions and the way his head rolled from side to side as he ran. 

In the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Emil won gold in his normal races (5 and 10 kilometers) and, then, literally at the last minute, decided to represent his country in the marathon. A natural extrovert, he sought out the favorite to win the race, Jim Peters (Great Britain), to ask him for a bit of advice. 

At the starting line Zátopek reportedly told Peters that because he knew nothing of marathon pacing, he would probably hang on Peters' shoulder until he could get the hang of it. With that in mind, Peters purposely started the race fast with the hopes of forcing Emil to make a mistake by over-extending himself. After a punishing fifteen kilometers Zátopek, who spoke six languages, asked the Englishman what he thought of the race so far. The surprised Peters told the Czech that the pace was "too slow," in an attempt to discourage Emil. Taking Peters seriously, Zátopek chose to accelerate. Peters developed a cramp in the last few miles and never finished. Zátopek ran for an Olympic record. 

Naturally, after winning his medals and setting his records, Emil the Terrible was a hero in Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, in the Prague Spring of 1968 he got himself crossways with the communist government. As a result, he was removed from all of his important positions in national sporting organizations and forced to work as a garbage collector, a well digger and, even, in a uranium mine. In March 1990 he was finally rehabilitated by Václav Havel, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first of the Czech Republic. 

As I read about Zátopek's rise from being a worker in the Bata shoe factory to becoming a world-class athlete (and, later, persistently holding on to his ideals even while he was demeaned by his government) I was naturally reminded of Hebrews 12:1,2. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith..." 

If I remember correctly, in The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, Colin, the antihero of the book, purposely refuses to finish a race so he can frustrate the warden of the reformatory where he is incarcerated. I suppose we could also refuse to keep going. Most people would understand. In fact, some people might applaud the decision. 

Still, I keep thinking of Emil the Terrible. When asked about the noises he made and his terrible facial expressions, he said, "It isn't gymnastics or figure skating, you know." He was right. It is a race and if we are going to be in it we have to keep on running, keep on looking for that prize - no matter how we look, how much we stumble and how many groans escape our parched lips.