San Jose Mercury News details Lad Pataki struggle
Elliott Almond, the esteemed track writer at the San Jose Mercury News, has expanded our understanding of Lad Pataki’s battle with brain cancer, writing today: “Ladislav Pataki, a former Soviet Bloc sports scientist who became a Silicon Valley fixture after defecting from Czechoslovakia in 1985, is suffering from brain cancer. Pataki is staying at an assisted living residence in San Jose, three-time Olympian Ed Burke of Los Gatos said. ‘He can’t talk to you but he understands what you’re saying,” the hammer thrower said. ‘At this point, he stumbles some.’ Pataki, 60, . . . underwent surgery in the Czech Republic last year, but doctors were unable to remove all of his tumor, Burke said.”
2 Responses
Not that it matters, but Lad had his surgery in his home town Nove Zamky, Slovakia. His family and friends from there are very concerned and wish him well. Milan
I remember Lad at the 1997 USATF Masters Championship in San Jose, California.
Lad did the M50 pentathlon with us.
The guy was amazing: he threw the discus something like 55m (!) and threw the javelin pretty far as well.
Not only that, he jumped a respectable long jump and sprinted a respectable 200m and even (though he could have coasted at that point and still win the Pentathlon by a wide margin) ran a respectable 1500m. What an amazing athlete. And nice guy too.
It’s too bad to hear this news about him. I, and the other pentathlete that were around that day, wish him well. -Grant Lamothe
Leave a Reply