Ladislav Pataki (June 20, 1946 – April 5, 2007) was an American coach, sports scientist, and masters track and field thrower. He defected from

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in 1985 with his wife and daughter, settling in Los Gatos, California. Dr. Pataki served as SyberVision System's Director of Advanced Sport Science upon his arrival in 1985 to 1990. In this tenure he established and integrated the Stanford University/SyberVision-developed film-to-brain sport training technology into the USA Olympic elite athlete training program in Colorado Springs, CO. After SyberVision he influenced the training of several world-class athletes living in the South Bay Area, where he continued his sports science career and developed nutritional supplements. As a masters competitor in track and field, he won several world championships and set world records in shot put and discus. He had surgery for brain cancer in the Czech Republic in 2006, after declining chemotherapy. When the tumor could not be completely removed, he entered an assisted living residence in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

. He died at age 60.

Early life and education

Pataki grew up in

Nové Zámky Nové Zámky (; ) is a town in Nové Zámky District in the Nitra Region of southwestern Slovakia. Geography The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on the Nitra River, at an altitude of 119 metres. It is located around 100 km fr ...

, in the former Soviet-bloc state of

. Nové Zámky is located in the

Nitra Region The Nitra Region (, ; ) is one of the administrative regions of Slovakia. It was first established in 1923 and from 1996 exists in its present borders. It consists of seven districts () and 354 municipalities, from which 16 have a town status. T ...

in the southwest of modern

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. According to his resumes, Pataki was the 1964 Czechoslovak Junior Champion and record holder in shot put. After competing in sports internationally as a youth, he earned two

Doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

of Research degrees from Comenius University in Bratislava, with a 1971 thesis in kinesiology and a 1977 thesis in

sport science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sports and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally i ...

Sports science career

After completing his first doctorate, he started his career in 1972 as head coach for discus throwing of the Czechoslovak National Team. He held progressively responsible positions in Czechoslovakia until his defection in 1985. In the U.S., Pataki joined SyberVision Systems as its director of Advanced Sport Science. He successfully introduced the Stanford University/SyberVision film-to-brain elite athlete training program into the USA Olympic training regimen at Colorado Springs, CO. Dr. Pataki, the highest ranking sport scientist to defect from the Soviet Union, believed the SyberVision methodology (the ability to capture pure athletic skills on video and edit them in such a way that the viewer's body and "muscle memory" responded as if the viewer was physically performing the repetitive skill/action presented on the video) was more advanced and effective than the elite athlete training methodology used in the Soviet Union. After SyberVision, in 1990 he continued his sports science career influencing the training of a group of world-class throwers who were competing in

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

, discus, and

hammer throw The hammer throw (HT for short) is one of the four throwing events in regular outdoor track-and-field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and Javelin throw, javelin. The hammer used in this sport is not like any of the tools a ...

. The concentration of strength-event athletes became known as "Weight City." (Nearby

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

had been nicknamed Speed City during its period of track and field success in the 1960s.) He also began a business career developing marketing nutritional supplements. In 2006, Pataki helped develop a

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

-based skin care product at AmerElite Solutions, where he was the director of research and development.

Masters competition

Pataki won world championships and set several records as a masters athletics (track and field) competitor in

, discus, and weight pentathlon.Results of 2001 Masters Track & Field World Championships, Brisbane, Australia
accessed at Pataki's PowerLean site April 12, 2007

Notes

External links

NutrLife/PowerLean
– Pataki's nutritional supplements company

– descriptions and photos of his shot put technique and training methods {{DEFAULTSORT:Pataki, Ladislav 1946 births 2007 deaths People from Nové Zámky Sportspeople from the Nitra Region Czechoslovak male shot putters Slovak male shot putters Sports scientists Czechoslovak defectors American track and field coaches Sportspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area Slovak masters athletes Defectors to the United States World record holders in masters athletics Academic staff of Comenius University Czechoslovak male discus throwers Slovak male discus throwers Slovak people of Hungarian descent