Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Today We Die a Little!: The Inimitable Emil Zátopek, the Greatest Olympic Runner of All Time

Today We Die a Little!: The Inimitable Emil Zátopek, the Greatest Olympic Runner of All Time

Askwith, Richard

Hardcover

Historical FiguresAthletesRunning & Jogging

ISBN10: 1568585497
ISBN13: 9781568585499
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Published: May 24 2016
Pages: 496
Weight: 1.20
Height: 1.50 Width: 5.80 Depth: 8.20
Language: English
We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to enjoy something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon. -- Emil Zàpek

For a decade after the Second World War, Emil Zàpek -- the Czech locomotive -- redefined the sport of distance running, pushing back the frontiers of what was considered possible. He won five Olympic medals, set eighteen world records, and went undefeated in the 10,000-metre race for six years. His dominance has never been equaled.

In the darkest days of the Cold War, he stood for a spirit of generous friendship that transcended nationality and politics. Zàpek was an energetic supporter of the Prague Spring in 1968, championing socialism with a human face in Czechoslovakia. But for this he paid a high price. After the uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks, the hardline Communists had their revenge. Zàpek was expelled from the army, stripped of his role in national sport, and condemned to years of hard and degrading manual labor.

Based on extensive research in the Czech Republic, interviews with people across the world who knew him, and unprecedented cooperation from his widow, fellow Olympian Dana Zàpkovàjournalist Richard Askwith's book breathes new life into the man and the myth, uncovering a glorious age of athletics and an epoch-defining time in world history.

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