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December 2009
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Dana Zatopkova: Creating a legacy that will live on for ever |
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23.02.2010 |
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Dana Zatopkova receives the European Athletics Women's Leadership
Award from Frantisek Fojt, general secretary, Czech Athletics Federation. |
In the ninth in a series of profiles of the national winners of the inaugural Women's Leadership Awards, European Athletics speaks to the Czech Republic's Dana Zatopkova.
Zatopkova started her athletics career in grand style, winning the gold medal in Javelin at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland. What followed Helsinki was a glittering career laced with a string of achievements that remain etched in the memories of athletics fans to date. She went on to win one more Olympic medal, this time a silver at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Besides winning the Javelin gold medals at the European Athletics Championships in 1954 and 1958, Zatopkova held 17 national records, three European records, and one world record during her remarkable career.
Zatopkova was a natural Javelin thrower and found the sport merely by accident while studying at university. As a favour for a friend who needed a competitor to pass an exam, Zatopkova made an attempt at throwing the Javelin, and launched it 34 metres. At the time, this was an exceptional effort and as a result the University Sports Club Brno convinced her to join them. One week later she went to Prague and won the National Championship.
Zatopkova's career post her track and field days has been no less significant as she continued a life dedicated to athletics, serving in several key positions and leaving a lasting footprint on the sport.
Zatopkova puts great premium on her experiences as an athlete and credits them as a source of lifelong inspiration.
"Since my childhood, I have always derived my personal inspiration through the unrestrained joy from exercise, and the love for perfection in sports."
In her post-athlete career, she worked with the Czech Sport Association (CSTV) and also served as the head coach of throwers in the athletic association for 16 years. She was also a chairwoman on the editorial board of the oldest athletic monthly magazine in Europe, Athletika, for 13 years.
Zatopkova played a crucial role in the growth and advancement of women's causes in athletics while serving as a member of the IAAF Women's Committee from 1960-1972.
Today, at the age of 87, Zatopkova still serves as a Javelin throwing training consultant and is involved with the top competitions in the Czech Republic.
Besides her own accomplishments, Zatopkova takes great pride in the contributions that she and her late husband, athletics legend Emil Zatopek, have made to the sport.
"I, together with my husband Emil, have dedicated my whole life to the world of athletics. Both of us started our career as active competitors and we represented the former Czechoslovakia.
"My husband and I have trained in Cuba, Indonesia, Vietnam and China. We took part in hundreds of workshops and we toured the world participating in numerous athletics events. Athletics was our life and we did our best to promote it not only in the Czech Republic but all over the world," she recalled.
Zatopkova was awarded the Olympic Order in 1988, and an honorary diploma by the International Commission for Fair Play attached to UNESCO. At the national level, she was given a State decoration, the Medal of Merit, in 2003.
In the future, Zatopkova sees herself contributing to the cause of women in sport through working with children: "to support their natural joy of movement in a playful way," she said.
Zatopkova lauded the initiatives of national and international organisations to support the cause of women in athletics.
"I think that all the support from institutions such as IAAF, the International Olympic Committee, European Athletics and the Czech Athletic Federation is very helpful for women in general. I think that all these bodies should follow the same idea - to make sport more open towards women."
Zatopkova continues to be an inspiration for all generations of athletes, following the legacy left by her late husband and simultaneously leaving her own.
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