Today We Die a Little! Quotes

“If you want to enjoy something,’ he said later, ‘run 100 metres.235 If you want to experience something, run a marathon.’ These are the words of a man who knows what it really costs to keep going for 26.2 miles.”
― Richard Askwith, Today We Die a Little: Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero

“It was hard-hitting stuff, denouncing ‘foreign despotism’ and warning of ‘a new dark age’ in which ‘insincerity will become a virtue, lies will become truth and silence will become an existential necessity’. Emil”
― Richard Askwith, Today We Die a Little!: The Inimitable Emil Zátopek, the Greatest Olympic Runner of All Time

“And he achieved all this with a grace and generosity of spirit that transcended sport.”
― Richard Askwith, Today We Die a Little: Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero

“Важно е какво правиш, когато стадионът е пълен с хора. Но е хиляди пъти по-важно какво правиш, когато на стадиона няма никого”
― Richard Askwith, Today We Die a Little!: The Inimitable Emil Zátopek, the Greatest Olympic Runner of All Time

“Emil was aiming for 29:15 – just over six seconds faster than his existing record – but in the second half of the race he began to step up the pace. The Finns roared him on. He ran the final lap flat out and finished in a scarcely believable 29:02.6 – nearly twenty seconds faster than his world record from the previous year. Afterwards, he warmed down outside the stadium, then returned to the centre of the track to retrieve his tracksuit. The spectators spotted him, and gave him a standing ovation that still brought tears to his eyes when he recalled it more than forty years later.143”
― Richard Askwith, Today We Die a Little: Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero

“Emil believed that beer was not only noble – the drink of the old Moravians – but positively beneficial for running. ‘This gives me power,’ he once said to Jaromír Konůpka, quaffing from the bottle on the day of a race.”
― Richard Askwith, Today We Die a Little: Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero