Arthur Smith on Emil Zátopek

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2014

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matthew Parris – himself current holder of the House of Commons marathon record time – meets comedian Arthur Smith, who also turns out to have been a runner when he was younger, and whose choice for a Great Life is an athlete whom he has admired since his childhood. Emil Zátopek emerged onto the international stage in 1948 when he became a sensation at the Olympics in London, but it was his performance in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics which put him in the record books. Already an established distance runner, he bagged gold in the 5000 and 10000 metres and then, having previously given no hint that he would be a champion marathon runner, he also won that race. The expert witness is Pat Butcher, writer and ex-runner, who is working on a biography of Zátopek, and he argues that no-one is likely ever to equal Zátopek's achievement in winning gold in three different distance events. Zátopek retired from competitive running in 1957 and later fell heavily out of favour with the post- Dubcek regime in Czechoslovakia but was rehabilitated after 1989 and remains a much-cherished hero in Czech Republic and among the running community. Producer Christine Hall. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Transcript

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0:45.0	Hello and welcome to Great Lives. I'd like to introduce this week's guest in his own words.
0:52.0	I am 4'11 and way about 6 stone. I have curly hair, glasses, but nothing
0:58.2	else unusual. I have scars on both my kneecaps. I am slightly above average height. I am skinny and wiry. My favorite sport is
1:07.3	football. I am a left half for the school team and I also like running, swimming, cricket and putting.
1:15.2	You may or may not have identified from that piece of biography written when he was 12.
1:20.4	Comedian, writer, musician and self-appointed mayor of Balham, Arthur Smith.
1:26.0	Arthur Welcome.
1:27.0	There's a tiny clue in your list of childhood interests as to whose life you've chosen.
1:32.0	Yes, I was a great fan of running and I was a great fan when I was that age of Zatore Beck, Zatore Beck, as they used to chant his name as he struggled his way in an ungainy fashion up the home
1:45.1	straight.
1:46.1	He was Emile Zatopec, the Czech runner, I think probably the best long distance runner of
1:51.3	the 20th century, whose famous crowning achievement at the 20th century whose famous crowning achievement
	...

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