A three-time Olympic Champion and world record holder Peter Snell is widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s greatest sporting heroes.
His career haul of three Olympic gold medals, two Empire Games golds, a host of world records and an unbeaten streak in major races is no doubt an impressive record. This astonishing athletic career had its beginnings in coastal Taranaki. Born in Opunake on 17 December 1938, sport formed an important part of Snell's life from a young age.
He played rugby, badminton, cricket, golf, hockey and tennis in his younger years. Recalling their country childhood in Opunake, one of Snell's childhood friends, Beth Harvey, remembered an active childhood.
"In the summer we seemed to be always over the back of the farm, where there was a river and native bush. We dammed the river, made canoes that always sunk, cooked damper and potatoes for lunch, played Tarzan swinging on the supplejack, swam, pinched the neighbour's turnips and often came home with red-stained lips from the juicy blackberries."
The Snells moved to Waikato in 1949 and Peter, who later attended Mount Albert Grammar school in Auckland, continued to shine in sport. In tennis he was especially strong, featuring at the Auckland and New Zealand Junior Tennis Championships. But after being spotted by the legendary running coach Arthur Lydiard and joining his programme he switched focus to running.
Snell lined up at the final of the 800 metres in Rome a relatively unknown 21-year-old. He finished the race an Olympic gold medallist. Half an hour later Murray Halberg also won gold in the 5000 metres – a truly remarkable afternoon for New Zealand. Snell's next landmark feat came in 27 January 1962, when he lined up at Wanganui, hoping to become the first person to break the four-minute barrier in New Zealand. He not only did that, but also broke the world record. The week after his Wanganui run, Snell also smashed the world records for 880 yards and 800 metre distances running on grass at Lancaster Park, Christchurch. The times he set that day remained New Zealand records five decades later.
By 1964, Snell capped his already glittering career at the Tokyo Olympics completing a rare 800 metre and 1500 metre gold medal double in decisive fashion. He retired from athletics in 1965. He moved to the United States in the 1970s to pursue a successful academic career in exercise physiology.
The honours that followed were many. They included being named New Zealand's Sports Champion of the Century in 2000 and having a statue erected in his birthplace of Opunake in 2007.
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