Emil Zatopek

“The childhood games ended for me when I was 14 and I finished school. I had to find a job, not an easy thing in those days.”

“There is a great advantage in training under unfavorable conditions. It is better to train under bad conditions, for the difference is then a tremendous relief in a race.”

“If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.”

“The athlete of today is not an athlete alone. He's the center of a team - doctors, scientists, coaches, agents and so on.”

“Sometimes I feel that old desire. Then my body tells me it is 50 years old. I take the easy way instead.”

“It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.”

“If I run 100 meters 30 times, that is 3 kilometers and no longer a sprint.”

“Great is the victory, but the friendship of all is greater.”

“Men, today we die a little.”

“In my country, I am just a common man... a nobody.”

“I didn't know much. It wasn't possible to buy a book about Nurmi, but I found out that in order to be faster over 10,000m, he ran 5,000m many times in training. And to be better at 5,000m, he ran 1,500m many times. And to be better at 1,500m, he ran four times 400m in training.”

“We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.”

“I had started as an average athlete - a normal boy. It took me three years to win a race. I was glad that I endured those three years - that I did not give up.”

“To boast of a performance which I cannot beat is merely stupid vanity. And if I can beat it that means there is nothing special about it. What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come.”

“If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's besides the point. It's simply that I just have to.”

“An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.”

“I will run with perfect style when they start judging races for their beauty, like figure-skating. For now, I just want to run as fast as possible.”

“When I was young, I was too slow. I thought I must learn to run fast by practicing to run fast, so I ran 100 meters fast 20 times. Then I came back, slow, slow, slow.”

“My running was very simple; it was out of myself.”

“I'm not interested in how long I can hold out, but in how fast I can reach the finishing line.”