Emil Zatopek: The Man Who Changed Running (Part 2)

It's easy to follow a program that's proven to be successful and get great results, but to try to do something different, to be better than just have great results, have incredible results, and that's what they're doing. And this is what Zatopek did. He chose a journey that no one had been on before.

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jared Donnelly. In today's episode, discussing the epic victory drive that age groupers get after a special race, Jack Rayner beats the 10 kilometer Australian record, which has been standing for a long time now. And part two of the Emile Zatopek story, the man who changed running and the man that revolutionized interval training. So much to discuss in today's episode. We can't wait to tell you part two of the Emil Zadopek story. Dad, welcome to the episode. Let's start with a normal segment. What are you grateful for?

Thanks, Jordan. I'm looking forward to talking about the famous Zatopek again. It was a bit of fun last week and I can't believe we have to do this over two episodes. It shows the stature of the man. So my gratitude this week is a very simple one. It happens to be a long weekend coming up. We have a holiday down here in Melbourne for a horse race, which is pretty weird and there's a public holiday, so it ends up being most people take Monday off the horse races on Tuesday, so people have a four day weekend. Some people take Friday as well. So it ends up being a huge break in your normal routine. It's great. It's like an Easter holiday and it's always an opportunity to do something and get away. And this particular weekend we're going away with a small group of fellow cyclists to do a little bit of training camp up in famous Bright, which is the hills area of Victoria, which has got three fantastic climbs, Buffalo, Hotham and False Creek. And we'll spend our time getting some strength in there for the upcoming, for a lot of the guys, it's for the upcoming Tour of Bright, which is a famous race in Victoria, which is a three stage race. So yeah, my gratitude is that we get the opportunity to get away and get to spend some time with people who are thinking the same and really wanting to improve their cycling and get stronger. And I just love these, these weekends when you can plan it. And the only thing that's could be a factor is that the El Nino is having and playing havoc with, with the roads and the amount of water that's landed in Australia in the last two months. So I know some of the roads are cut already. The road to Falls might be preventing us to ride up there, but yeah, besides that, it should be. I am very grateful for that opportunity.

A classic cyclist gratitude where you can't wait to spend six hours a day in the saddle riding up some big mountains. It's just, it still makes me laugh and that's, it's funny. I was going up, up the mountain with a bunch of mates to go on a snow trip and it was a mountain in New Zealand and I hadn't been there for a long time. And going up on the bus, you catch the bus up and it's this epic drive where you get the most spectacular views. And 3/4 way up I was just looking down and it has heaps of hairpin turns. It was like a New Zealand Alpe d'. Huez. It's the Remarkables, if anyone knows it in Queenstown. And I just muttered to myself, gee, I'd love to ride this. And it was just a very passing comment. I didn't think much of it. I was just looking out and two of my mates just looked at me like I was bat crazy. They go, what the hell did you just say? I thought, oh, it's so funny. It's such a natural thing for a cyclist to want to do, but to everyone else they're going, did you say you'd want to ride up this, you weirdo? It's just, it's very funny. And my gratitude is somewhat in line with that. I am just grateful for running. I just really enjoy running. And every time I'm on a run and I get into it and you get into the groove and you get through that warm up phase and you get into the flow state where you're running comfortably, your heart rate's not too high. It's just one of the best feelings in the world, I reckon. So that is my gratitude and I.

Can totally concur with that. And if I was able to run, I would love to put that back into my fitness. And unfortunately I've damaged my body so much that I can't run anymore, which is very frustrating and it is one of my passions that I'd love to do. I'm spending a lot of my time walking. But you're right, running is such a buzz and you get Such a good endorphin release from just the satisfaction of cruising around and you're providing the propulsion, not a bike or swimming through water. You're actually running yourself. And yeah, it's a great gratitude.

Moving on to the next segment, what has caught your attention? And I mentioned the special words, the Victory Drive. Now, that is not something that everyone will be familiar with, but is something that we're very fond of at Trivella. So explain the Victory Drive to the listeners.

Yeah, look, the Victory Drive is. It's a bit of a weird one, really, and I'm kind of a little bit embarrassed about it, but it is one of those things, special moments you share with yourself. And that in itself is pretty weird. But I think it's worth telling because we are generally a weird group of people who love putting ourselves under pressure and love to test ourselves. That's kind of the journ journey we're all on, you know, seeing how much we can improve ourselves and seeing what we can get out of ourselves. Setting goals and the Victory Drive is about that. It's about setting goals and having small steps along the journey and then reaching for that goal and succeeding. And whether it ends up in actually victory, as in winning the event, or whether it's just you performing at your very best that you've ever done and that may end up you being 60th instead of 120th in an event, it's still the victory. The Victory Drive. You're actually. You've moved up. I want to specifically talk about one of the guys that I've had the pleasure of coaching. I don't normally mention names on the podcast, but this guy's a lovely, lovely guy. Cyclist from wa, Western Australia. And when he first joined Trivalo, he was a pretty accomplished rider, but he'd never won a state title or national title or any title for that matter, and had not won a lot of races and was very competitive and always thereabouts. But he said to me when we started, you know, I just want to win that state road race. That would be a real goal for me. And I said, oh, you know, that's a great. That's a great goal to aspire to. And cycling, such a difficult one to pin your goal setting on to a result, because there's so many factors that happen in a bike race. You know, it's just not about fitness. And we've said many times it's not only the. The fittest person who will win a bike race because there's so many tactics involved in in bike racing, you could be by far the strongest rider and never win because your tactics are horrible. So you need both. You need really good tactics, experience when to make your moves, how much to ride, when to ride hard, when to burn a match, and you need to be fit to accommodate all those things you want to do in a race. And so, yeah, Dave rang me the other day, and first of all, he sent me a picture on the text with a photo of him on the top step. That meant in my mind, he was just won the state road title. And the emotion I felt straight away was far out. That's pretty impressive because I know how hard it is to win that. And soon enough we got to talk and he was in the car on the way home, which is the best time to talk. Whether you've won or lost, it doesn't matter. It's a really good time to go over the analysis of the race. And it's funny because he said to me, I got in the car and just yelled. I just yelled out, yeah. You know, by myself, no one around. You need to be humble when you're on the dice. You need to be keeping quiet. You know, inside you're bursting because of what you've achieved. And it's, you know, it's a big thing to be state champion in road racing for your. For your particular state. So when you get by yourself, you just kind of have this big release. And that's something that I've experienced myself. And I happened to say that today, that I said to him, when you got in the car, Dave, I didn't know about this. I asked him when you got in the car to drive home, explain your feelings. And he said, I just yelled out. And I said, that's just truly amazing because that is the victory drive home. That is what makes it special, that you've really done what you wanted to do and you appreciate everything that went into it. The preparation, the training regime that you put yourself under to work towards this goal. You know, the years of. Years of improving your fitness and then talking tactics that we've done over the two years about when to attack, when not to attack, what to do when you attack. All those things worked out perfectly. And he rode the best tactical race that he's ever ridden. And that victory drive home is the special one that you just want to share it with yourself. And if you can share it with someone who knows what you've gone through, it's even more sweeter. And. And yeah, I must say, it was, you know, a very emotional conversation we were having and, and it's one that, you know, is, is really special and I think it's worth noting. And you know, on the topic of what's caught my attention, you know, I was kind of buzzing and I don't want to sound like it's just I get excited about victories, I get excited about pbs, I get excited about people achieving and I would have the same emotion, you know, whether you, you ran a 2 minute 10K and it happened to, to put you 20th place PB. And, and that's, that's what I'm talking about is, you know, setting yourself goals, going about it so diligently and not leaving any stone unturned. And it's just a special feeling that it's taken him two years to get to this point and he's been a model, a model athlete to coach. It's, you know, what do I need to do? And listening the who, you know, it's, it's a partnership we've developed where, you know, I'm listening to how he's feeling. He's got a high powered job, he's a surgeon. And so, you know, cycling is a release for him and it's fun and that's the way he's, he's taken on this journey and, and he wants to train properly. He doesn't want to waste any training sessions. He wants to know what session he's doing and what's going to benefit the benefit he's going to get out of it because he's got a very busy schedule like we all do. So, yeah, it's the victory drive home. It's something that I'm sure people, once they've heard this story, will start thinking about that when they leave their fun run or when they leave their triathlon. And it's just something that you do yourself and if you can share it with someone special, it's even better with your wife or your partner or your best mate or whatever. It's an awesome thing to experience.

I absolutely agree and I've had many victory drives homes where it was just a PB, you know, where I've done a massive PB and I would have come 25th in the race, you know, but that was, I was just as ecstatic on that drive home. You're doing the same thing, yelling to yourself, I've, I've done that victory drive home, you know, giving yourself a huge cheer off a 5K park run PB. You know, it's, it's when you train hard and you're Working towards something and then you, you get a good result, you just get that emotional release and like you said, it's along the journey there's these little stepping stones that we test ourselves against. And when you get a reward for it, it's so such a nice feeling, such a good feeling. But especially when it's one of your A goals, you know, a really big result you're looking for when an A race you're working towards, that's when you get that huge just rush and, and that is a bit of an end result that you're working towards. Even though we say it's about the journey, but that, that part is so worth it. And then you reset and go again. So yeah, that's a great one. What's got my attention is Jack Rayner, Australian superstar runner, just broke the long standing 10 kilometer national record, the Australian national record in a time of 27:43, blistering pace. He broke Craig Mottram's record. And I think this is a really good indicator. We've been saying this for a while and everyone is really seeing that Australian middle distance running is absolutely stepping up. You know, Ollie hall winning our first 1500 meter gold at the Commonwealth Games recently. Craig Mosham was our best middle distance runner to come through for a while. And a lot of his records have been held until now and they're all start, a lot of them are starting to be broken or started to be tested. His mole record was, was broken by Oli Horror as well recently. You know, he had all these records the last 10, 15 up to 20 years and now they've really been tested and I think that's really great to see because he was one of our most competitive runners on the world stage. And a lot of the runners now are getting to that stage. We see Stuart McSwain at the very top competing against the world's best consistently in the Diamond League. But one of the key things that stood out for me was, and this is one of your theories, dad, that you're really, really strong on. And that is. Jack Rayner has spent the last few years as a marathon runner. He's been training for the marathon. He went to the Tokyo Olympics for the marathon. And it's only in the last 12 months or less they decided to step down and have a crack at a few 10 kilometer races. I think his first 10 kilometer race was Zatopek last year. I think that's correct. And he found he was really good. And after all these years of marathon training, when he steps down, he's got that strength and I don't know the intricacies of his training once he decided to do some 10k races, how much speed work he did. But I think what we want to say behind your theory is that this longer endurance running can give you so much strength that you can perform at shorter distances just from that base, just from that strength that you get from that endurance. And look at him. He's now the fastest 10 kilometer runner in Australia even though this isn't his event. And I just find that fascinating.

Yep. And it's a great point you make. But there's so much that we don't know about his training. So we, we're kind of really just guessing. But we do know that he did do a lot of marathons. So his preparation would have to be, you know, very much structured towards endurance type training. And we're presuming that, you know, he's got that strength for the last 2k in a 10k race from his marathon base. And that's the point we're making is, you know, getting stronger over longer training will help you on shorter stuff. Of course you need to do specific training sessions that's going to contribute to that, such as some faster running or some goal pace running or some intervals or some hill repeats where you are running, you know, somewhere around that sub threshold threshold to VO2 period. So, so those, those training sessions are really important. But, but don't discount the value of the big volume that you've got in your fitness bank that we talk about all the time that can actually help you contribute to running an Australian record, the fastest ever Australian that's been held for a long, long time. And ironically we're talking about Zatopek today. And if you look at his time back in 1952 for the 10K when he won the gold medal at the Olympics and it was a world record at the wasn't that much slower and he was running on a pretty crappy surface, cinders surface with dodgy shoes to, to be even, you know, more handicapped. And, and it shows you the caliber of, of Zatopek. And look, we've got guys, we've got all the best facilities, best running shoes, you know, carbon sole shoes. You should be able to run faster on tracks that have got you the best rebound. I don't know how much difference that makes but, but you know, Jack Rayner's result is fantastic. But put it in perspective, guys running onto dirt, they're not that far behind. And it was literally 1952, which is you know, 70 years ago, and there's only a minute or so between his time then and now. That staggers me when I see that.

I absolutely agree. And this was the fastest time ever ran on Australian soil by Jack Rayner. So, yeah, the comparisons are very interesting and great to see from Jack Rayner, but you're spot on. And it is the wonderful thing about the Emil Zatopek story and that whole era of what he was able to achieve. And let's get into it. Let's get into part two, because we really want to discuss where he went in part one. We spoke about a lot of his training, a lot of his background and the results it gave him. And 1948 was his first Olympics where he was able to show the world really what he was made of in a championship race. And I would akin when I was thinking about everything we spoke about in part one and his innovation of training methods. And the innovation was so big that it changed the way training was done for the next 70 years. Even up until now, some of these principles are still sound. And I think we're in an era right now where the same thing is happening with the Norwegian method. And the Norwegians kind of shirk it a little bit. They joke about the Norwegian method in quotation marks and the Norwegian train, but they also do know that they're ahead of the game and they're revolutionizing it and what they're doing now and the kind of results they're producing I think will shape training and where training goes for the next foreseeable future. And that's what he did. Didn't. He's at a pack that's in that period. It was a really formative period that shaped running to what it is today.

He's a bit of a trailblazer. And as I think we briefly touched on last week, he wasn't to know whether it was going to be successful or not. And that's a huge risk if you. If you let's. You know, Ingebritzen has proved and that whole family, Ingebritzens, and now the triathletes with Gustav and Christian, you know, they've both put down a new way of training. You know, one's in running and one's in triathlon or two are in triathlon or there's more than two. There's plenty more, actually. But, you know, they've gone on a journey where it's unknown the outcome. And that's the bit that really intrigues me, is it's easy to follow a program that's proven to be successful and get great results. But to try to do something different, to be better than just have great results, have incredible results, and that's what they're doing. And this is what Zadop did. He chose a journey that no one had been on before. And did he know that that was going to be successful? He had no idea. He just thought that I need to do it differently if I want to be competitive. And that's the bit that intrigues me is. And we relate it to our own journeys. Each individual listening now is be willing to change and don't accept the fact that what you did for five years or 10 years, I'll just keep doing that because you're going to stay the same and you need to up the ante. Whether you change something about the structure or the frequency or the duration or the intensity, you just need to do things differently, to give yourself a different stimulus, a different overload, a different progression. And this is the thing that I love about guys like this who are innovators in their time. And I just think it's a little bit ignored about the things that he did. I suppose history, that's why we're talking about this, because history. I think we'll see the 2018-2022. So far, things have changed from what they were in 2004 or 1983 or, you know, I think people have really gone well. Yep. This has worked for 50 years. Let's just tweak it a little bit and see what results we get. And there's a lot of similarities. From what I see what the Norwegians are doing and what Zatopek did. And he did. He did a lot of volume. True. And that's kind of the Norwegian theory is to really be strong aerobically. A lot of that Zone two aerobic fitness, strength, altitude. You know, I'm not sure Zadopek did any altitude, but he did a lot of strength where he ran in Iran in army boots and on really hard terrain through forests and trails and, you know, with running in boots and really tried to, you know, when he got onto a track, he was. He was doing, as we said, you know, I don't know, 22 hundreds plus 4,000, four hundreds plus, plus 10, two hundreds. You know, ridiculous sessions that are just going to make him stronger or, you know, it's be stronger or die, isn't it? It'll sort you out, won't it? You know, we don't know how he built up to that. You know, they're Renowned sessions that we've seen. But he might have done, you know, 5 by 2 and 10 by 4 and 5 by 2 and progressed his way over four years to get to those ultimate sessions that people rave about. So there's a lot of unknown things that we, that we don't know about. But I'm suggesting that his bank of fitness was enabling him to be a five, 10 and a marathon runner. In the one year, which has never been done before. He won the medal in all those events, the gold medal, and you know, no one's ever done it since. But what a versatile runner to be able to do that in three different events.

Let's go through it. So we've established his training, we've established the fact that he was getting himself big on the world stage. And he goes to the London Olympics in 1948 and has a crack at the 5 and 10k double and wants to show how good he is. And he, he wins gold in the 10,000 meters, which becomes his famous pet event. And it's actually incredible. From the period of 1948, which is that Olympic year, to 1954, he won a record breaking 3810 kilometer races, going undefeated and really cemented himself as the 10,000 meter king and a well deserved gold medal at the Olympics and shows that he's the best 10,000 meter runner in the world. He fell short in the 5000 and I say fell short, he still won a silver. So silver in the 5,000 meters, gold, 10,000 meters. But it was that silver medal that absolutely burned within him because he wanted the double, he wanted the double gold and he believed he was good enough. And so he spends the next four years determined to do one thing and one thing only, and that's repeat his gold in the 10k and go one better in the 5k and win that elusive gold medal. And all his training was based around making sure that he was strong enough to win both races. And he actually is. In his training, he really made sure that he practiced that speed work, but really practiced his kick. And when he was doing These sessions of 5, 10 by 200, 40 by 400, finished with the 200 speed work, he was practicing that last kick at the end of these training sessions. He was going as fast as he could in that final lap. And we come to 1952, the Olympics in Helsinki, and we get to the 5000 meter race and he was up against a very strong field of runners and some who had faster times than him in the 5000 meters. And as we said at the Previous Olympics. In his biography, it says he'd blown the 5,000 meters, which is quite an aggressive word. I don't think he absolutely blew it, but he thought he could win it and he got silver. There was talk that he misjudged the. The race at the end, but if you do watch the footage, it just looks like he's. He's not strong enough anyway. He really, really wanted to win this one. And he had this plan which he'd been working on for the previous four years. And he's quoted by saying by the time he got to the 1952 Olympics, he reckons he's done about 40,000 fast 400 meter laps. And his whole plan was to blow them away in that last lap with a 400 metre sprint at the end. And it's quite a remarkable race, how it unfolded. And there was a few of them there still at the end. I think it was four of them coming into the last few laps. And the plan he'd been dreaming of for the last four years kicks into action. He goes into the lead in the last lap for about 100 meters, and the next thing you know, he gets passed and a second runner passes him and another runner passes him, and he's sitting in fourth and he's coming down the back straight. And his plan that he's been working on for four years is in ruins and the other three are getting away from him. And what does Emil Zatopek do? Any normal person would really panic down this last straight. You know, everything he's been training for is going out the window. But instead of despairing, he remains cool. He thinks that they've panicked and they've gone too soon. And he still thinks they can beat them. Him. And in classic Zatopek fashion, there's no way his head is going to give up. He claws his way back, and on the final bend, it's just pure willpower that wheels him to the front. And he actually said, I could see the metal, he could see the gold medal. He looks like in quotes, a deranged insect. And he was famous for having an absolutely shocking style. As we said in the last episode, he looked like a baby giraffe sometimes, running. And he never cared how he looked. He just said, I just care how fast I can go. And somehow he blows the others away and wins by a decent distance and gets his gold medal in the 5,000 meters. And what a comeback story for him to go through all that and win that 5,000 meter race.

Yeah, what a great story. You've Told and it's so accurate. And watching the video of that event, I just thought he was done for all money. And, you know, the training method that he had worked on, it paid dividends because he just forced himself back around them like he'd already just been passed. And then guys who go round people in the back straight, the people you're going past, that's it for them. They're normally done nine times out of 10, and next thing you know, he gets the 200 to go and just starts going around them again. He wins by 10 meters in the end. And that practice of that finish, that last 300 meters that he so diligently thought about for four years, you know, that's something to get in the car and go, hell yeah about have the victory, drive home. And, you know, just a small example that you did when you were so desperately trying to break two minutes for 800. We got you in some of your training sessions when you were doing eight by two hundreds to run the last 50 meters, lifting your pace. So you're getting practiced at lifting your pace. So we determined that you were fading in the last 50 meters and you'd been so close, you'd run 2001, 2000.0, whatever, and you were just fading every time you did the next race. And so that was implemented into your training sessions so that it would be second nature. This is the sort of thing he's doing. He's making sure that he is strong from 300 to go. And amazingly, Ingebritzen does the same tactic. And when he lost the 1500 meters at the world titles, normally Inger Britzen sets a pace that is not possible for anybody to pass him. So if someone comes up on his shoulder, he just accelerates so that no one can come past him. And Whiteman went around him and almost cut Inga Britzen off, threw his stride out and then was having to go back around him to win and couldn't do it in the straight. And that was an example of someone who practiced something but hadn't got to understand that if something else goes wrong, what am I going to do? So they're examples of. Strategy is quite important in a lot of the stuff that from back in the 50s to even now, you can still be a great runner, but still blow the race if you've gone too soon or burnt the match too quickly or whatever strategy you use doesn't suit your style of running.

Yeah. And in Ingrid's defense, I don't think there was much more he could have done. He Just wasn't strong enough to come back around. Wyman. Wyman was just too good on the day, I would say. But what blows me away from this 5000 final was that his last lap, Zatopec was in 57 seconds, which is a monster kick at the end of a 5,000 meters. And granted, there he won it in, I think the time was 1408. So like you said before, that that time is still a minute slower than probably what the, the gold medal at the World Champions was this year. I think Ingrid ran 13 low 13s. The world record is now in the 1230s, so it does seem like a long way off. But don't forget the type of track they're running on, the type of equipment they have, the shoes that they're in. For him to run a 52nd, 57 second last lap, to me is just astounding because even nowadays the best runners in the world with the most advanced training methods, with the most advanced shoes, their last 500 meter kick might still only be 54, 55, 56. So Xanapek isn't that far off them. And like we said, this is 70 years ago. So to me, that was one of the more astounding things about the time.

I don't want to glaze over it.

But he does the magical double, the coveted double at the olympics, winning the 5,000 meters and 10 meters, which is just an incredible feat for any distance runner and so hard to do at the one event. And so he goes one better than 1948. He wins the double gold, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, and then he does something completely surprising in a very last minute decision. And I couldn't verify exactly how last minute was because again, the myths like to say that he decided 20 minutes before the race that he was going to do the marathon. But more, more accurately, I think it was a couple of days in or a day before that he decided, no, I'm going to have a crack at this marathon. And so he decides to try and go for the triple, the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and marathon gold medal, which has never been done and then to this day has never ever been repeated. And he enters the marathon and in epic fashion he wins the gold medal, which is just absolutely astounding, and is the only person in history to win the 5,000, 10,000 metres and marathon at the same Olympics.

What an outstanding feat. And it's a great story about that marathon because Jim Peters had just set a new world record not that long ago. So he was the out and out favorite and I think he'd run 2 hours 20 for the marathon and that record had come down from 2 hours 25. There was, there was some really good runners that were capable of running fast and, and yeah, to see, to see the footage of that it's quite, I, I love watching that old footage and they had some little sections that you could see and Peters just took off out of the stadium in the lead and just left everybody and, and you know, Zatopek who, who's you know, got speed 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter speed was finding the pace too much and he's thinking what I'd like to keep up with this guy but it's too fast, I can't, I can't even keep up if I wanted to. And you know, the story goes that of course Peters went too hard and didn't, didn't really rate anybody else in the race. I don't think enough to really just try to run a championship race rather than, I think he wanted to run, you know, the best time trial that he ever run in his life and not, not think about the other runners. And of course you know, the story goes that he, he actually you know, ended up on his back on the ground and Zatopek passed him and, and ended up winning comfortably by two, two and a half minutes and, and eventually ran a 2:23 which you know, was an Olympic record, not the world record but it was the new Olympic record. So you know, all hail Zatrpec for, for finishing off the treble.

It's yeah, it's quite remarkable. Again, it's never been done since then and he really cemented his place as one of the greatest track runners of all time and that, that cemented his spot in history. And from then on, you know, five, five Olympic medals, that's four gold and one silver. Like we said. He went on to win 38 10,000 meter races across that six year period. He then becomes in 1954 the first person to ever break 29 minutes for the 10K. So there's a lot of elusive barriers in athletics and they come up in all sorts of forms. You know the 2 minute 800 the for, for the amateur athlete, that is for the professionals the 4 minute mile which was cover for so long and then was finally broken the sub two hour marathon which Kipchoge has managed to do, albeit not under legal conditions. But yeah, Zeke was the first person to break 29 minutes for the 10,000 meters. And like you said, you know, Jack just ran 27, 43 for Zatopek to go only a minute slower over a full 10k. I mean a minute is at that pace. It's about, you know, 400 meters or just under, but that's not that far off. When again the track is a lot slower, the shoes are a lot slower, his training methods are a lot less scientific. It's incredibly impressive. And so that sort of brings us to the conclusion and the summary of the story. And it became so famous and etched in history that we now in Australia have yearly the Zatopan Track Classic, which is the most prestigious track event in Australia. It's the pet event. In the race is the 10,000 meters. The whole, the calendar of the event obviously has a whole lot of stuff in it. It has some 1500 meter races, 3000 meters. But the pet events are the men's and women's 10,000 meters. It's actually on in December this year. It's normally in December, but has been moved around last few years due to Covid. But it'd be great to see which, which Aussies turn up this year and who can win the, the famous Zatter pack. And you know, we grew up athletic kids going to watch the Zatrpec at Olympic park and lately the crowds, crowds died off for a little bit there. But the last few years the athletics crowds have been building again. This year's Zatrpec which was at the end of summer or middle of summer, was one of the biggest ass crowds I've seen in a while. So it's really exciting to see and obviously now that anyone's going there, hopefully if they didn't know already, will know a little bit more about, about the history behind the man who the event is named after. And I think that's the point we wanted to finish on was we're really big here at Trivelo about the character of who you are as an athlete. Because sports is one thing and when it's time to compete and time to be a beast on the field, we absolutely want that. That's what we're all about, you know, it's, it's putting everything on the line to achieve the result you want want, but in that we still like to surround ourselves with. What you said before in your gratitude with regards to going on training camps and training with like minded people is you want to surround yourself with people that are nice to be around that lift you up and your character is really important. I think that's, you know, a lot of the research I was doing is something that stood out to me. And you also know some, a lot of anecdotal stories about this. Zephek was just known to be so selfless and humble. And I want to touch on some points about that. And one of the key stories was he actually threatened to boycott the 1952 Olympics because a fellow athlete of his was banned for political reasons. Obviously the, you know, the war had been going on. They were part of a communist government. One of his fellow athletes had stood up to the communist government and was banned from the Olympics. And then Zatopec came out and said, well, I'm not racing if he's banned. And they didn't call his bluff. They, they submitted and the athlete got to race and Zadopek didn't have to boycott. And imagine if, you know, he. Three gold medals, he would have had to give up if he did boycott it. But that was the kind of character he was. He was actually willing to sacrifice his own ambitions for the good of someone else. And I think that that is one story that really sums it up and astounded me.

And it's a beauty, isn't it? And look, he, he goes on to try to lift up his fellow human beings and even giving. There's stories of him giving advice mid race, not as a smart aleck, but as someone who really genuinely cares about someone who looks like they're in trouble. And he was always smiling, always happy. We always say that people who love doing what they're doing will be good at it. And, and you could see from all the footage, every time you see him, he's waving to the camera. And cameras weren't really prevalent in those days. Most of the athletics that was ever being completed and run was. There's no footage of a lot of it, but that's the character that people were talking to about him. And down the track he ends up trying to. To help so many people that the communist government of the era ended up sending him down the mines. And he really disappeared from public life because of some of his outspoken political opinions, statements and opinions that got him in hot water. But they were all true and real and caring for other human beings. But, but it ended up being to his detriment and he wasn't heard of for 20 odd years. And all of a sudden things changed in the world and he was kind of released a little bit and came back on the scene. And that's when the Zatopek euphoria of the 80s really took off, when he was back out in the world again, spreading the goodwill almost so he's an incredible human being and they're the things that, that you don't hear about with just sports people. He was very political and really pushed his views, so much so that it got him in massive trouble. And it was all to do with helping other humans. That was his entire mantra, was not for himself, but to uplift others. And I think that's an amazing trait to have. And it's not easy to have that when we are so determined to improve our own lives and you know, self centered and including myself in all of this, you know that it's an easy thing to get caught up in and not think about your fellow human beings. But you know, this is, this is the sort of person that he was. And it's even more exciting to see someone succeed with all these traits. I love it. It's just brilliant.

Perhaps one of the best stories of all comes from Australia's Ron Clark. And he actually visited Emil Zatop in Prague in 1966 after both had finished their, their fantastic running careers. However, as good as Ron Clark's running career was, which included 17 world records, the coveted Olympic gold medal had eluded him. And when he went and visited Zatopek in Prague, Zatopek offered up his typical hospitality. They had a great friendship because of it. And at the conclusion of the trip, Zatopek handed Ron Clark a package as he was boarding his flight to leave Prague. And Clark opened the package midair to find an almost inconceivable gift. It was one of Zadopec's Olympic gold medals. And as Zadopec once said, great is the victory, but the friendship is all the greater. And I just think that as he was renowned for his friendly, hospitable, generous, selfless nature, he was like you said, friendly to other athletes. He spoke six to eight languages and he was really big on trying to learn more languages because he wanted to communicate with more people, people, that was his goal with learning more language. And again, we're just really big on this sport is so much about this battle against yourself, against the clock, against your own PBS and against your competitors. But it's also this great place where people with common interest come together. And I think that, yeah, just his character and his persistence in self experimentation, his training methods, both conventional and unconventional training methods can still be seen in the world of athletics today. And, and I want to summarise it by saying that he provided endless examples of how an athlete and a sportsman should live. And Ron Clark's quote, I think is a great finish this Story where he says, Zatopek's enthusiasm, his friendliness, his love of life shown through every moment. There is not and never was a greater man than Emile Zatopek. And I think that's as high praise as you can get from a fellow athlete.

Yes, that spine tingling, the story of imagine giving away your gold medal to a fellow athlete who you felt sorry for, who deserved to win. Ron Clark deserved to win many, many gold medals at the Olympics, but through various circumstances, it just never quite happened. And as much as people deserve something, it doesn't always come to fruition. And Emile really understood that. And wow, what a gift. It brings an emotion to you. Imagine his face opening up that package and seeing a gold medal. And yeah, I think that's a great way to finish. And that sums up the human being that he was. And unfortunately, he died in early 2000s as a reasonably young person, really. But he had a pretty torrid life, I think. But, boy, did he make the most of his opportunities. And that's why I think this story is really worth sharing. And it's a great example for many metaphors of life. If we can look to what he's done on his journey as a trailblazer, that everybody has an opportunity to do something constructive in their life and contribute to the world being a better place. And it's a great start with him.

And also the fact that one of the learnings I take from it is that it's not incredibly hard or difficult to be a nice person. Being a world champion and being an Olympic gold medalist, that's. That's pretty difficult to do. And being as mentally tough as him, that's pretty difficult to do, you know, but being a nice person, being nice to athletes around you, being someone that lifts people up and is supportive and looks out for other people, that's all stuff that comes at no cost to you. And it is really easy. So I think that's really inspiring that that's possible for all of us and that's what we want to see more of.

Fantastic. I think that's it from us on Zatopec. And yeah, I really enjoyed the discussion and there's so many positives that hopefully the listeners can get out of it. It is one in histor terms. But there's certainly, you know, the whole point of the Outva podcast podcast is to try to. To help people on their journey and, and this story, if you can relate it to yourself and think about what things you can do in your journey, such as a trailblazer like Zatopec then you will have a much more enjoyable period.

That's it for this episode. As always, thanks very much for listening. And we always say that the best thing you can do for us is share the podcast. Either share it and give us a review online, or share it with a fellow triathlete, cyclist or runner that you know will enjoy it. And if you enjoyed this story, then please pass it on. Thank you again for listening and we'll see you in the next episode. Sam.