One of the finest books that I have ever read. I had met and interviewed Emil Zatopek, and Pat Butcher got to know him better than most!
Emil Zatopek rewrote the record books from 5,000m to 20,000m and one hour.
He invented double-threshold training.
He was a patriot as well as a Marxist who was demoted in the Czech military after his support for the Czech 1968 Spring Revolt.
He is the only man to win 5,000m, 10,000m, and marathon gold in the same Olympics (1952).
As he finished the marathon, his wife, Daniela, was winning the javelin!
He is incredibly inspiring and a great read over the holidays!
Quicksilver, the Mercurial Emil Zatopek, by Pat Butcher
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America’s first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: “I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself.” Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, ” I’m no Angel.”
