Olympic legend Emil Zatopek has died at the age of 78. The Czech distance runner became a quadruple Olympic champion between 1948 and 1952. Zatopek, nicknamed `The Locomotive', won four Olympic golds, including the 10,000 metres at London in 1948, a feat he repeated at Helsinki in 1952 - where he also won gold in the 5,000m and the marathon. Zatopek set 18 world records and was European champion at 5,000m in 1950 and both the 5,000m and 10,000m in 1954.
The Czech's stance against his country's communist regime prior to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics made him of a hero of the people. Lamine Diack, President of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, led the tributes to Zatopek.
"This is a sad day not only for sports people, who saw embodied in Zatopek all of the virtues of a champion," said Diack. "But also for the common people who recognised who recognised in Zatopek an honest and intransigent defender of the fundamental principles of dignity and freedom of the individual."
Filed by Seán Folan
