Track spikes Emil Zatopek, a distance runner from Czech Republic, wore them during the 1952 Olympics in Helesinki. The front of the sole features a rigid or semi-rigid spike plate containing between 3 and 9 threaded holes called spike wells. Spikes can be screwed into each well using a spike wrench. Recently, some individuals have attempted to add a "through hole" at the bottom of the spike to make them easier to tighten, remove, and install. Some shoes have permanent or "fixed" spikes which are not meant to be removed. Spikes may break during competition. Track shoes are exceptionally light, some shoes
Emil Škoda Emil Škoda Emil Ritter von Škoda (18 November 1839 – 8 August 1900) was a Czech engineer and industrialist, founder of Škoda Works, the predecessor of today's Škoda Auto and Škoda Transportation. Emil Škoda was born in Plzeň on November 19, 1839 to a physician and politician František Škoda, and mother Anna Říhová. Škoda studied engineering in Prague and Karlsruhe and in 1866 became chief engineer of the machine factory of Ernst Fürst von Waldstein-Wartenberg, founded in 1859 at Pilsen. He bought the factory three years later, in 1869, and began to expand it, building a railway connection to the