THIS WEEK IN HISTORY JULY 27 1952
'Zatopek!' 'Zatopek!'
Like the clackety-clack of the wheels of a rumbling train under a tall head of steam, the chant reverberates through Helsinki's spacious Olympic Stadium and seems to reach into the heavens and fall like thunder on the ears of the world.
Finland - home of long-distance deity Paavo Nurmi - rises to the balding, gaunt Czech army officer who bursts into the arena amid a deafening roar, face grimacing, head bobbing and arms flying at the end of the torturous Olympic marathon.
In another testament to the sheer emotion of the moment, the Jamaican relay team spontaneously race to the victorious Czech and raise him on their shoulders in a tearjerking vignette of sporting and racial brotherhood.
It might well be the theme song of the 1952 Games, the second of the great international sports festivals following the 12-year hiatus caused by the second world war. It is also the first to produce the head-to-head confrontation of the cold war superpowers.
Emil 'The Indefatigable' runs under the red colours of Czechoslovakia, a part of the Iron Curtain bloc. But politics and ideologies are forgotten, as this reed-thin athlete churns to victory in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres and finally the marathon - a long-distance running feat never before achieved and probably never to be duplicated.
