Za-to-pek! Za-to-pek! Za-to-pek!: The Life and Times of the World's Greatest Distance Runner

by Bob Phillips

Genres: Biography

159 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Andy Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!

Emil Zatopek could very well be the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen.
I don't think we'll ever see someone win 5k, 10k AND marathon gold medals in the same Olympic games again.

This book is focused specifically around his running achievements and goes into detail with times and race specific splits. Probably only one for running nerds but it's very good

[James Klagge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a great fan of Zatopek--the Czech long-distance runner. His feat of winning the Olympic gold medals in the 5k, 10k and marathon races in Helsinki in 1952 will never be equalled. (Distance running is now too specialized for that.) He was universally respected as a runner and loved as a person. His story would be fascinating: Having been born in 1922 he lived through the Nazi occupation of his country, he rose to prominence as a runner before the communist regime took power in 1948, but managed to maintain his position during communism. He was a critic of communism during the Prague Spring in 1968, but then internally exiled after the Soviet crackdown. He lived to see his country return to democracy in 1989, passing away in 2000. Yet there is hardly anything about any of this in this book. The book is much more a record of his races. This is fine, as far as it goes--but that isn't very far. The book ends with a few chapters by journalists who knew him that relate some more personal details. The only real biography about him was written in 1954 by a Czech communist as more of a hagiography than insightful biography. It is a shame a better biography was never written. Perhaps it still could be.
While Zatopek's world records in 5K and 10K have been long- and far-surpassed, he was dominant at those distances for 6 years. He is best known for his punishing training regime--running not only great distances each week, but using interval speed training. It was a radical innovation at the time--skeptics claimed it would shorten his career. Asked to defend his endless speed work he replied that he didn't need practice running--he needed practice running fast. I try to take this to heart, since the temptation is just to put in the miles. I make myself do speed bursts on uphills when I can. When asked why he grimaced when he raced he replied--I am not talented enough to run and smile at the same time! Very Czech.