Zátopek biography at Czech film festival

The 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, cancelled last year due to Covid-19, opened on Friday 20 August with “Zátopek”, a dramatised biography by Czech director David Ondříček about the long-distance runner who is his country's most famous athlete.

At the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952 Emil Zátopek won gold medals in the 5000m, 10,000m and, in his debut at the distance, the Marathon. He is still the only person to have won all three long-distance running events at one OIympic Games and is often regarded as the greatest runner of the twentieth century.