Revisiting the Emil Zatopek Myth: Running by Jean Echenoz

Abstract

In the first half of the 1950s, the history of running was marked by the overwhelming dominance of Czechoslovakian runner Emil Zatopek. As a three-time gold medallist at the Helsinki Olympic Games, his achievements were vastly instrumentalized by the communist regime to make him a hero of the people. For over sixty years now, the life and performances of Emil Zatopek have continued to be the regular focus of an array of cultural forms (advertisements, novels, films, comic books, etc.), contributing to building the myth. With Running, the French novelist Jean Echenoz plays his part in this process and raises a decisive question of interest to the sports historian: can a myth be created from a sportsman? By adopting the principles pertaining to the social history of representations, as well as those of romantic transposition, the investigation method chosen here aims to understand how a novelist succeeds in challenging a sporting myth and turning it into a bookstore success, translated into twenty languages and with 109,000 copies published.