ZALAFFI MARGHERITA (Fencing, Italy, B
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The Olympic Dictionary Z ZAHARIAS-DIDRIKSON BABE See Didrikson-Zaharias Mildred Ella “Babe”. ZALAFFI MARGHERITA (fencing, Italy, b. Siena 7/4/1966). Five appearances (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000), one gold medal (team foil 1992) and 2 silvers (team foil 1988, team épée 1996). 1988 0-1-0, 1992 1-0-0, 1996 0-1-0. After coming 4th in Los Angeles (7-9 against France for the bronze) and winning silver in Seoul (4-9 against West Germany), she won her gold medal in Barcelona in the team foil, with 15 victories in 16 assaults, including 3 in the final against Germany in which Italy pulled back from 3-4 down to win 9-6. “We were better than the men, because we didn’t let success go to our heads”. In 1995 she took up épée (“A risk, I needed a new challenge. It turned out well”), climbing the podium in Atlanta to pick up a silver in the team competition (33-45 against France), and coming close in the individual competition (13-15 against Hungarian Szalay Horvathne in the final for the bronze). She took part in her fifth Olympics in Sydney – the first Italian woman to achieve this in the Summer Games, except for Josefa Idem (q.v.) who took part in 6, but 2 of which for West Germany – where she came 7th in the individual competition. In the World Championships, she won 4 golds (1982-83-90-91 in team foil), one silver and 3 bronzes; one gold (team épée 1999) in the European Championships; she won the World Cup in the foil in 1992, 6 Italian titles in individual foil (1983-85-87-88-91-93) and one in épée (1996). ZAMBIA (Republic of Zambia, Africa, capital Lusaka, area 752.614 km2, population 11.922.003). 2 medals (Samuel Matete’s silver in the 400 hurdles in 1996, and Keith Mwila’s bronze in boxing, light flyweight 48 kg, 1984). The Zambian Olympic Committee, formed in 1964, received IOC recognition that year. As Northern Rhodesia it took part in the 1964 Games, and as Zambia at all Olympics since 1968, except for the 1976 Games due to the boycott. ZAMPORI GIORGIO (gymnastics, Italy, b. Milan 4/6/1887, d. Breno, Brescia, 7/12/1965). Three appearances (1912, 1920, 1924), 4 gold medals (individual all-round 1920, team competition 1912, 1920 and 1924) and one bronze (parallel bars 1924). 1912 1-0-0, 1920 2-0-0, 1924 1-0-1. After coming 4th in 1912, he won his individual gold metal in Antwerp with 88.35 points (0.73 ahead of Frenchman Torrès), and he also won 3 golds in the team competition: in Stockholm ahead of Hungary, in Antwerp ahead of Belgium, and in Paris – where the team competition results were determined by positions in the individual competition: he came 26th – ahead of France. “His exercises were never taken to the extreme, but he was more accurate and clean than most”, said Savino Guglielmetti (q.v.), winner of 2 Olympic golds in 1932. He also won 5 gold medals in the World Championships (parallel bars 1911 and 1913, rings, floor exercise and pommel horse 1913), plus a silver and a bronze in individual competition, and 3 bronzes in team competition. He was an orphan: he had studied at the Milan “Martinitt” charity institute, and he was a machine gunner in the War. In 1926 he graduated in physical education. He was coach of the National team up to the Rome Games, and he was a gymnastics teacher in Brescia up until his death. ZANZIBAR It never took part in the Olympics under its own name, but since 1964, when it united with Tanganyika, its athletes have taken part in the Games with Tanzania. 227 The Olympic Dictionary ZÁTOPEK EMIL (track & field, Czechoslovakia, b. Koprivnice, now Czech Republic, 19/9/1922, d. Prague 22/11/2000). Three appearances (1948, 1952, 1956), four gold medals (10.000 m 1948 and 1952, 5000 m 1952, marathon 1952) and one silver (5000 m 1948). 1948 1-1-0, 1952 3-0-0. He is the only athlete to have won the 5000-10.000-marathon treble at the Games. Son of a farmer, as a boy he played football, discovering athletics when he was 19 while working in Zlin (now Gottwaldow) as an apprentice shoemaker. He ran his first race in 1941, an unusual 1400 m, in which he set the unremarkable time of 4:24.5. He began doing better in 1945, after Swedish middle distance runner Arne Andersson visited Czechoslovakia: he learnt training techniques from him. His style was not graceful, running with one shoulder lower than the other, with an unsteady, painful-looking gait, and an unexceptional physique (“I wasn’t talented enough to run and smile at the same time”, he would say), but he embarked on an intense training schedule (up to 800 km per month) which transformed him into one of the greatest runners ever. He made his international debut at the 1946 European Championships, where he came 5th in the 5000 m. He tried the 10.000 m for the first time as late as May 1948, and won the Olympic gold in London over the distance just a few months later, winning in 29:59.6 and leaving Alain Mimoun (France) almost one lap behind. In the 5000 he fought a long duel in the rain with Gaston Reiff (Belgium), who attacked 4 laps from the end and was 40 metres ahead at the start of the last lap; Zátopek made up the distance, but he was beaten (14:17.8) at the sprint, always his weak point. From October that year he began a winning streak of 49 consecutive victories, which came to an end only in early 1952. In 1949, running the 10.000 first in 29:28.2 and then, after having been overtaken by Finn Viljo Heino, in 29:21.2, he set the first of a series of 6 world records, plus 12 year’s best performances. In the 1950 European Championship, he won the 5000-10.000 double, while in 1951 he did not run much to prepare for the Helsinki Games, where he intended to take part in the marathon as well. In Finland, he began on 20 July, with the straight final of the 10.000: he took the lead at the 3000 mark, with Mimoun behind him, but the Frenchman was left behind in Zátopek’s last lap, 64 seconds (final time 29:17.0). Two days later, in the heats for the 5000, he enjoyed himself chatting with the four athletes in the breakaway group, explaining to them, gesticulating enthusiastically, that there was no point in wasting energy because the first five would reach the final. On 24 July, in the final, Herbert Schade (Germany) led up to the 4th km, then Zátopek increased his speed up to the bell, with Schade, Chataway and Mimoun just behind, and then overtaking him; at the last curve, he began his final acceleration, Chataway tripped on the curb and the others fell back; he won in 14:06.6 ahead of Mimoun and Schade. Just a few hours later, his wife Dana Ingrová-Zatopková, born on the same day as him, won gold in the javelin (she ended her career with, in addition, 2 European Championship golds and the Olympic silver in 1960). On 27 July he made his debut in the marathon, in which the favourite was Jim Peters (GB), holder of the year’s best performance at 2h20:42.2. The race became a solitary run by Zátopek, who took the lead at mid-race and finished in 2h23:03.2, two and a half minutes ahead of Reinaldo Gorno (Argentina) and 3 minutes ahead of Gustaf Jansson (Sweden). He ran up until 1956, winning the gold medal in the 10.000 at the 1954 European Championships, where he also won bronze in the 5000, and finishing the Olympic marathon in Melbourne 1956 in 6th place, 6 weeks after a hernia operation. A year later he retired, becoming an influential figure in the Communist Party; but in 1968 he signed the “Two thousand words manifesto” which would initiate the Prague Spring, later crushed by the Soviet tanks. As a result of his support for democratic ideals, he was stripped of all his positions, and was sent to work as a geologist in a uranium mine and later in the national sports archive. He was reinstated in 1990. ŽELEZNÝ JAN (track & field, Czech Republic, b. Mladá Boleslav, then Czechoslovakia, 16/6/1966). Five appearances (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004), 3 gold medals (javelin 1992, 1996 and 2000) and one silver (javelin 1988). 1988 0-1-0, 1992 1-0-0, 1996 1-0-0, 2000 1-0-0. Both his parents were javelin throwers, and likewise his older brother. As a boy he played football, ice- hockey and handball, but he soon took up the family pursuit. In 1987 he was in Rome for the World Championships, where he won a bronze; in all he took part in 8 World Championships, winning 3 228 The Olympic Dictionary golds (1993-95-2001) and 2 bronzes. He made his Olympic debut in Seoul, winning a silver medal (84.12) behind Tapio Korjus (Finland), who overtook him by 16 cm on his last throw. Then he won 3 consecutive Olympic golds: in Barcelona (89.66), Atlanta (88.16: after his victory, the Atlanta Braves baseball team invited him for a trial as a pitcher), and Sydney (90.17); at the age of 38, he came 9th (80.59) in Athens, his fifth Olympiad.