Zatopek out of hospital

Olympic legend Emil Zatopek is recovering from illness

Czech athlete and Olympic legend Emil Zatopek has left hospital and returned home after a recent illness.

The Czech Republic's most celebrated athlete, who won four gold medals at the Olympics in 1948 and 1952, was hospitalised on 4 September with a mystery virus that was complicated by pneumonia and a weakened heart rate.

"Close attention will have to be paid to his convalescence for a few more days," explained his doctor, Ilja Kotic.

Locomotive

Nicknamed "the Locomotive" in his prime, Zatopek won four Olympic golds: the 10,000m at London in 1948, a triumph he repeated at Helsinki in 1952 where he also won gold in the 5,000m and marathon.

Zatopek set 18 world records and was European champion at 5,000m in 1950 and 5,000 and 10,000 in 1954.

Observers said of his style that he ran "like a man with a scorpion in both shoes."

A hero in his homeland, Zatopek fell from grace after the 'Prague Spring' of 1968 where he took the microphone at Wenceslas Square to speak out against the presence of Soviet tanks.

Stripped

Stripped of his job at the ministry of defence and his Colonel's rank by the pro-Soviet Czechoslovakian leaders, the athlete spent six years working in a uranium mine outside Prague.

His purgatory finally ended in 1975 when he was given a job making sports documentaries.

Zatopek and his wife Dana Zatopkova, the Olympic javelin champion in 1952, recently celebrated their 78th birthdays, having both been born on 19 September, 1922.