This book was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. The definitive biography of one of the greatest, most extraordinary runners & Olympic heroes of all time, from the author of running classic Feet in the Clouds. On the track, his running made him a legend; off it, his charisma & humanity made him a hero. No runner has generated myth like Emil Zatopek, the Czechoslovakian soldier who revolutionised distance running after World War II. The minutiae of his victories & training methods, the poignant details of his generosity & downfall
- all have been endlessly repeated & reinvented, but the full truth never told. Zatopek won five Olympic medals, set 18 world records, & went undefeated over 10, 000 metres for six years. He redefined the boundaries of endurance, training in Army boots, in snow, in s&, in darkness. But his toughness was matched by a spirit of friendship & a joie de vivre that transcended the darkest days of the Cold War. His triumphs put his country on the map, yet when Soviet tanks moved in to crush Czechoslovakia`s new freedoms in 1968, Zatopek paid a heavy price for his brave stance as a champion of `socialism with a human face`. Expelled from the Army, he was condemned to years of degrading manual labour, far from his home & his adored wife. Rehabilitated two decades later, he was a shadow of the man he had been
- & the world had all but forgotten him. Based on extensive research in the Czech Republic & with unparalleled access to Zatopek`s family & friends, particularly his widow, fellow Olympian Dana Zatopkova, Today We Die A Little evokes not just an extraordinary man but a glorious age of athletics & a dramatic period in European history. It strips away the myths to tell the complex & deeply moving story of the most inspiring Olympic hero of them all.