Today We Die a Little: The Rise and Fall of Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend
Thanks to English friend Fiona for this book, along with another one by Richard Askwith (Running Free: A Runner's Journey Back To Nature). The Zatopek book is the hardcover version, released in 2016 and runs to 457 pages.
Asquith explains the book as follows on his website - see https://richardaskwith.co.uk/books/emil-zatopek-olympic-legend-to-cold-war-hero/
Today We Die A Little is my attempt to tell the full, extraordinary story of my lifelong hero – the man Runner’s World named in 2013 as the greatest runner, over any distance, of all time.
No runner has spawned so many legends as Emil Zátopek, the Czechoslovak soldier who in the decade following the Second World War revolutionised distance-running. He won five Olympic medals (including gold in his first attempt at a marathon), set 18 world records, and went undefeated over 10,000 metres for six years. In doing so, he redefined the boundaries of human endurance. His training sessions defied belief, many of them performed in Army boots, in snow, in sand, in darkness – even, some said, with his wife on his back.
His toughness was matched by a spirit of generous friendship that transcended nationality and politics in the darkest days of the Cold War. His warm heart and eccentric joie de vivre charmed the world. He dropped one of his gold medals in a swimming pool; another, famously, he gave away.
In the Prague Spring of 1968, Zátopek was an energetic champion of “socialism with a human face”. When Soviet tanks moved in to crush Czechoslovakia’s new freedoms, he paid a high price. Expelled from the Army and stripped of his role in sport, he was condemned to years of hard and degrading manual labour, far from his home and his adored wife. By the time he was fully rehabilitated, two decades later, he was a shadow of the man he had been – and the world had all but forgotten him.
Based on extensive research in the Czech Republic, interviews with people across the world who knew him, and some wonderful support and encouragement from Emil’s widow, fellow Olympian Dana Zátopková, Today We Die A Little is an attempt to get beyond the usual myths and anecdotes and discover the real man behind the legend.
It has been a challenging book to research and write. I have discovered that my hero had flaws as well as wonderful human qualities. There was tragedy in his life as well as joy and glory. Yet the true, complex, occasionally heart-breaking story of Emil Zátopek is if anything even more exhilarating than the generally accepted comic-book version. No one has ever understood or embodied the romance of running so life-enhancingly as Emil did, and with so much top-level sport now hopelessly corrupted by the cold, cash-driven, win-at-all-costs mentality, the story of his brave, generous-spirited life is as inspiring and relevant as it has ever been.
I just hope that I have done him justice…
See also this very good interview with Askwith in the Guardian newspaper: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2016/apr/27/today-we-die-a-little-writing-the-story-of-emil-zatopek
I've got lots of running biographies and autobiographies - those of Peter Snell and Brendan Foster are amongst my favourites as they tell the stories of athletes who trained incredibly hard and produced the goods. But I don't think anyone ever trained harder than Zatopek. His ability to tolerate pain and push himself was unbelievable. The book tells this side of the story in great detail, guiding us through his rise to the top and his many races.
But Zatopek was much more than just a talented runner and the book also explores this very comprehensively. He was clever, spoke eight languages, Finnish among others. He was naturally convivial and had a wonderful and generous personality. He also stood up for his principles. He risked his 1952 Helsinki Olympics spot by defending his teammate Stanislaw Jungwirth. The Party decided that Jungwirth could not travel because his father was a political prisoner. Emil said if Stanislaw is not going, he would not either. Their departure was delayed for three days but they ended up both going as part of the team. e was a lot more than just a talented runner.
The book handles well the complex issue of the political climate and Zapotek's part in it was handled, along with the later years of physical and cognitive decline.
My only gripe is the huge amount of book space given over to the politics at work behind the scenes. How far Zátopek collaborated with or resisted totalitarianism is interesting but the author debates back and forth on this ad nauseam when a few pages of the evidence for and against would have sufficed.
A 5 star read about the greatest distance runner of all time.
