experiment’s Reviews > Today We Die A Little > Status Update

“What you do when the stadium is full is important, but what you do when the stadium is empty is a thousand times more important.”
“When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a thousand times then he certainly develops in ways more than physical. [...] Willpower becomes no longer a problem.”
That was part of his secret: he never spared himself.

Zápotek was celebrated, globally, not just as an outstanding athlete but as a shining ideal. This was a man from a small country, a simple soldier of austere habits, who achieved sporting heights few had dreamed of through a simple formula: the cheerful acceptance and mastery of pain.
This was an athlete who was not just fast but heroically tough.