Shaul P. Ladany is a Belgrade-born Israeli survivor of Bergen-Belsen. He holds a PhD in Business Administration from Columbia University. Ladany has pursued dual career interests with remarkable intensity, devoting his life both to the sport of race walking and to the field of industrial engineering. He participated in the 1968 Mexico Olympics and survived the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, set the 50-mile world record, won the 100-km world championship, and set records around the globe. Simultaneously he published over 10 books and 100 scientific papers and obtained 8 US patents, becoming Chairman and Chair-holding Full Professor of Industrial Engineering at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. He is still active, recently breaking the 100-mile world record for the 70+ age group, receiving a research grant and applying for a new US patent. In 2007 he was awarded the International Olympic Committee s prestigious Coubertin medal, and in 2008 the Israeli Industrial Engineering Association honored him with its Life Achievement award.

"From triumph to tragedy this personal first-hand look into the past is a good reminder as we look forward into the future and where we go now." -- Mark Spitz, winner of 7 gold medals (swimming) at the Munich Olympic Games, the highest ever won at a single Olympic game

"One senses the anguish and the excitement, the sheer nerve and determination of a man who took on the Israeli athletic establishment and did it all, his way. He manifests the courage to push beyond his own limits and the reader will experience the anguish and the exuberance of the life that Ladany has led. He earned my admiration, my respect and my gratitude. He will earn yours as well." -- Michael Berenbaum, Executive Editor, Encyclopaedia Judaica

"Packed with insider info on the life of a long-distance athlete and interesting anecdotes from the author s life, Shaul Ladany s King of the Road will appeal to anyone who has ever reached for a goal in life and pushed to be the best. This book will inspire you!" --Tal Brody, former Captain, Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team; first sportsman to receive the Israel Prize

"Ladany, 72, is the ultimate survivor. Not just of Munich, where he managed to escape the wrath of terrorists during the attack in the Olympic village. Ladany also spent months in a Nazi concentration camp (Bergen-Belsen), had recurring bouts with skin cancer and lymphoma, and endured enough legal and administrative skirmishes to wear down most mortals. On July 4, his charter flight to Berlin lost one of its two engines 90 minutes into the air, turned back and made a successful emergency landing in Tel Aviv. But then, Ladany has always been beyond us. He speaks nine languages and is a professor of industrial engineering with 8 patents, 110 scientific papers, 13 books and more up my sleeve." -- New York Times

"He survived the Holocaust and then escaped the Munich Massacre. Today, at the age of 72, he is an athletics phenomenon... Given the extraordinary course of his life, it would be fair to call him the great survivor the ultimate survivor even... The septuagenarian professor and race walker has survived not one but two of the great global horrors of the past 100 years. As an eight-year-old, back in 1944, he was interned in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He was one of the few of Yugoslavia's 70,000 Jews to survive the Holocaust. As a 36-year-old, in 1972, he was a member of the Israeli team who were attacked by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics. He was one of six male athletes who managed to escape from the Black September group." -- The Independent