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Talkback: Emil Zatopek: The Greatest Champion?
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Guys: I just put Viren in for his Doubles Doubles on 1972 and 1976. That clinched it for me.
Dream: Zatopek was the runner of his time. He set new standards and broke through barriers. I've just admired him since getting into athletics back in the early 1980s.
Said Aouita was another with an amazing range of talent.
5000m Gold in 1984 OG and 1987 World Championships, Mile and 5000m WR Holder then bronze in 800m in 1988 !!
Dream : I agree with that re Bekele .
Birkmyre/Dream - we're all pretty much agreed that Geb, Bekele and Viren would be part of any top 4 (and I take your point that Bekele hasn't finished his career yet , by any means).
I still think Zatopek should be in the mix, even though his times look ordinary today. One test of greatness is dominance over your contemporaries and by that measure Zatopek deserves serious consideration. I'm sure that if he was around today (with modern training, rest etc) he'd be much faster than his 1950's times and probably dominant in Europe, although I don't think he'd be any match for either Geb or Bekele at their best. I guess I put him 2nd mainly because of how far ahead of his rivals he was.
David/Dream: Its quite amazing how the 3 of us have come to near enough the same conclusions.
I must admit I always admired Paul Tergat as an athlete and Moses Kiptanui for his Steeplechase exploits. De Castella is another from 1980s for his Marathon wins. Despite not medalling in LA84 when a hot favourite.
Emil Zatopek and Ron Clarke are my all time favorite runners. My affection for them is nothing short of hero worship.
The Zatopek - Clarke Olympic medal story recounted in the article is legendary and always brings a tear to my eye. There have been better and faster runners since them, but I can't think of anyone who better embodies the human spirit than Zatopek.
I was lucky to get to see Ron Clarke run at the White City in 1968 and even luckier to meet Zatopek and get his autograph in Prague, also in 1968, shortly before the Russians arrived and changed everything.
Amazing stories there Tom. Just from your perspective, if we could arrange a "fantasy race" (say 10,000m) between Zatopek, Ron Clarke, Lasse Viren, Haile, Bekele and Paul Tergat - all at their peak and taking into account the eras they were racing in - what do you think the "1-2-3" would most likely be ?
Tom: Wow amazing that you met and got an autograpgh from the Great Man. Ron Clarke was another fantastic distance athlete.
David: Thats an interesting race...
I absolutely think EZ is one of the all-time greats. As a teenager, I used to read about and idolise his training methods, even if I didn't have the resources or ability to replicate them!
But for a year or two, I was Emil Zatopek.
Found this colour footage of the Great Man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXiqD84SVFM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jun/22/50-olympic-stunning-moments-emil-zatopek
Good piece in Guardian for those of us interested.
Clarke kept the package in his pocket until his plane was in the air. "I wondered whether I was smuggling something out for him. I retired to the privacy of the lavatory. When I unwrapped the box, there, inscribed with my name and that day's date, was Emil's Olympic 10,000-metre gold medal. I sat on that toilet seat and wept," Clarke said."
I've read this story a hundred times and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes.
Tom: I've read that story lots of times and I always think of how great and humble a man Emil Zatopek was to do that.
http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/the-greatest-olympic-athletes-mens-distance/
Found this AW article for those of us interested.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/olympicsvideo/great-olympic-moments/9346838/Great-Olympic-Moments10000-metre-men-lap-up-the-drama.html
Some good 10000m footage here.
http://www.globerunner.org/index.php/07/man-and-superman/
Intetesting read i found here on the great man.
Spam Get yourself to...
This is a good thread
Just looking for Also Ran's thread and stumbled across this. Zatopek is certainly one of the greatest long distance runners ever. That 100 x 400m off 200m recovery session is mind-blowing. I would guess that 72s per lap, although it sounds like phenomenal to us mere mortals, is somewhere near Zatopek's lactate threshold, judging by his times for the 10,000m etc.. Maybe a little bit faster than LT. So it would have been a short interval tempo session! Maybe 100 reps is a bit extreme, but maybe worth trying something similar one day... I wonder if he also did faster intervals with fewer (a lot fewer!) repeats? Awesome and inspirational guy, in any case. As you were...
Tom: Yeah he did, sorry for the delay in replying to your question mate, just seen it
Tom: No probs mate
A wee reminder after Mo Farahs latest double.
Where does that double now put Mo Farah no win all time distance greats ?