Tradition dictates the winner of the decathlon holds the title of "World's Greatest Athlete".

[2] A panel of experts convened by the Wall Street Journal in 2008 also ranked Šebrle as the world's greatest athlete.

[4] On 14 October 2000 Šebrle married Eva Kasalová,[5] a former Czech athlete who competed on the track in the 400 and 800 metres.

[6] When Roman Šebrle was six years old, he started playing football, but also occasionally took part in athletics competitions.

Then he met coach Jiří Čechák who convinced him to change school from Rychnov nad Kněžnou to Pardubice, where he joined the Track and Field Club in 1992.

He joined the army sports club Dukla Prague and its group of decathletes led by coach Zdeněk Váňa, and has stayed a member since that time.

Šebrle then left the Váňa's group and started to train with coach Dalibor Kupka in the same club.

[11] Šebrle's best World Championships results were gold in 2007 (Osaka) and silver in 2003 (Paris) and 2005 (Helsinki).

He was also successful at the World Indoor Championships in heptathlon, taking gold in 2001 (Lisbon) and 2004 (Budapest, beating the European record with 6,438 points), and bronze in 1999 (Maebashi), 2003 (Birmingham) and 2006 (Moscow).