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The apotheosis of Åmil Zatopek and the golden moment of Herb McKenley
With his victory in the marathon Emil Zatopek achieved something that no-one has repeated ever since: a gold Olympic medal in the 5,000m, in the  10,000m and in the marathon. The moment he entered the Helsinki Olympic Stadium covering the last metres of the marathon, in another corner of the track the four runners from Jamaica were still celebrating their victory in the 4x400m relay having broken a world record that remained unbroken for 8 years. As Zatopek got to the finish line, receiving the admiration of more than 80,000 spectators, the Jamaican athletes lifted him up and carried him around the track in triumph. Without a doubt, that was the most glorious Olympic moment for Zatopek, Jamaica and Herb McKenley.
The first participation of Jamaica in the Olympic Games was in the 1948 London Olympics and it was quite successful. It was then that it won its first gold medal in the 400m with Arthur Wint winning short before the finish the favourite and compatriot of his, McKenley. In the same Games Wint won another medal, a silver this time, in the 800m.
In its second appearance in the Olympic Games Jamaica achieved more successes in the track. George Rhoden won the 400m, leaving McKenley in the second place again, and Wint won the second place in the 800m, as in 1948. McKenley won a second silver medal in the 100m, in one of the most suspenseful 100m races in the history of the Olympic Games. At the finish line four athletes fell on the tape almost simultaneously and with a time of 10.4. Everyone believed that McKenley was the winner. The American Lindy Remigino, an outsider of the race, even hastened to congratulate him. But soon the photo finish showed that Remigino was the winner. McKenley had finished in the second place one more time.
Finally, the "always second" McKenley won the gold medal in the 4x400m relay in a very good race that gave him apart from the gold medal a new world record.
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