20

It is not true that human life is nothing but a series of misfortunes, a chain of bondage and a night of destruction. Sometimes happiness-flood does inundate certain human beings. Such an experience lasts for the entire span of an individual's life and offers continuously a new significance to the pilgrims who have come to enjoy the earthly pilgrimage. Here Zatopek comments on the day in the Helsinki Olympics when he had won his third gold medal — for the marathon — and his wife, Dana, had taken a gold medal with a new Olympic record in the women's javelin: "It was a wonderful day. It was 24 July 1952. I remember it always. Indeed, it was all happiness for us."