Zatopek: Ahead of his time

Cram: "Zatopek was ahead of his time."

BBC Sport's athletics commentator Steve Cram pays tribute to the great Emil Zatopek, who died on Wednesday

I never got the chance to meet Zatopek but he was one of those names you grow up with.

Around 1994 there were lots of dinners to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile, and I got to know Bannister, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher.

Zatopek's name always figured high in conversation.

I was born in 1960 so I never saw him run first hand, just a few grainy images on film later in my life.

His achievements, even by today's standards, were remarkable.

Emil Zatopek in 1994.

The only guy who ever got close to his record of winning the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon in one Olympics was Lasse Viren in 1976.

He did what Zatopek did, win the first two and then wake up on the morning of the marathon and think, yeah, I'll give it a pop.

Viren finished fifth in the end, but no-one these days could possibly get anywhere near Zatopek's feat. Not Gebrselassie, not anyone.

I've talked about this over the years, and sometimes as a distance runner you might do a few races and still feel in good shape.

Certainly any world-class 10,000m runner, on form, could run a good marathon.

At that time, Zatopek was so far ahead of the rest in terms of his training regime and level of fitness

  Steve Cram

But to get any better than fifth just wouldn't happen.

I think you have to look at the era in which his running was done.

At that time, Zatopek was so far ahead of the rest in terms of his training regime and level of fitness.

When he won that Olympic marathon he set a new Games record - and you just don't do that if you've already bagged the 5K and 10K gold.

He was the first one to run interval sessions in training, and there were loads of stories that came out about his training methods.

If you talk to the likes of Bannister, theses stories had a big effect on other athletes around the world.

Zatopek at his brilliant peak.

Until that time, it was still very much an amateur scene. Many of them weren't even training every day.

Zatopek changed all that. He was a pioneer of distance running, and an unarguable all-time athletics great.