Sir Peter George Snell (17 December 1938 – 12 December 2019) was a New Zealand
middle-distance runner. He won three Olympic gold medals, and is the only man since 1920 to have won the 800 and 1500 metres at the same Olympics, in 1964.
Snell had a relatively short career as a world-famous international sportsman, 1960–1965, yet achieved so much that he was voted New Zealand's "Sports Champion of the (20th) Century" and was one of 24 inaugural members of the
International Association of Athletics Federations
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
Hall of Fame named in 2012. A protégé of the New Zealand athletics coach
Arthur Lydiard, Snell is known for the three
Olympic and two
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...
gold medals he won, and the several world records he set.
Early athletic career
Born in
Ōpunake, Snell moved with his family to
Waikato
Waikato () is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, t ...
in 1949 where he attended Te Aroha College and became an all-around sportsman. He won several middle-distance running events in his hometown of
Te Aroha
Te Aroha ( mi, Te Aroha-a-uta) is a rural town in the Waikato region of New Zealand with a population of 3,906 people in the 2013 census, an increase of 138 people since 2006. It is northeast of Hamilton and south of Thames. It sits at the ...
, although some members of his new school lived in
Ngāruawāhia
Ngāruawāhia () is a town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located north-west of Hamilton at the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā Rivers, adjacent to the Hakarimata Range. Ngāruawāhia is in the Hamilto ...
. He attended
Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland, where he took up a wide range of team and individual sports, including
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...
,
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
,
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
,
badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
, and
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
. As a teenager, Snell excelled in tennis, and pursued the sport through appearances at the Auckland and New Zealand Junior Tennis Championships.
At age 19, Snell was motivated to concentrate seriously on running by the comments of his future coach, Arthur Lydiard, who told him, "Peter, with the sort of speed you've got, if you do the endurance training, you could be one of our best middle-distance runners."
[Winder, Virginia (2003]
"Peter Snell's One-Track Mind"
pukeariki.com Retrieved 10 January 2006. During his early career under the tutelage of Lydiard, he started with New Zealand titles and records for 880 yards and the mile, despite being an unusually large and powerful man by typical middle-distance runner standards.
Olympic success
Snell came to international attention with his gold medal in the
800 metres
The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since th ...
at the
Rome Olympics in 1960, setting a new national record. He was particularly dominant four years later at the
Tokyo Olympics where he won the gold and set a new Olympic record in the and won gold in the
1500 metres
The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athle ...
.
By winning the 800–1500 m double, Snell became the only male to achieve this feat at the Olympics since 1920, and it has not been achieved by any male athlete at the Olympics since. It was not achieved by a male at an open global championship until Moroccan-born
Rashid Ramzi of
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
won both golds at the
World Championships in
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...
at
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
. (After the 2008 Olympic Games, Ramzi was stripped of his Olympic gold medal for
doping
Doping may refer to:
* Doping, adding a dopant to something
* Doping (semiconductor), intentionally introducing impurities into an extremely pure semiconductor to change its electrical properties
* Aircraft dope, a lacquer that is applied to fabr ...
, but that penalty was not applied retroactively to his World Championship gold medals.)
World records
In early 1962, Snell lowered the
world mile record by a tenth of a second at
Cooks Gardens
Cooks Gardens is a multi-purpose stadium in Wanganui, New Zealand. It is currently used mostly for rugby union matches, athletics and cycling. The main stadium, known as Westpac Stadium, is able to hold 20,700 people with 3,500 covered seats.
...
in
Whanganui
Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...
on and one week later set new world records for both the 800 m and at He then won gold and set a new record for
880 yd at the
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...
in
Perth
Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...
in 1962, and won gold for the
mile
The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...
at those same games. In all, Snell set five individual world records and joined fellow New Zealand athletes to set a new four by one mile relay record as well.
Snell's former world records of 1:44.3 for 800 m (3 February 1962) and 2:16.6 for 1000 m (12 November 1964), remain the New Zealand national records for these distances. His 800 m record remains the fastest ever run over that distance on a grass track, and is also the oldest national record recognized by the
IAAF
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...
for a standard track and field event. His 800 m record was also the
Oceania continental area record for 56 years, until 20 July 2018.
Fatigued after his Olympic buildup and second world mile record in 1964, his final track season in 1965 was characterized by a string of losses to such athletes as Olympic 1500 m silver medalist
Josef Odlozil Josef may refer to
* Josef (given name)
* Josef (surname)
* ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film
*Musik Josef
Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura, and is the only company in Japan s ...
, Olympic 800 m silver medalist
Bill Crothers, U.S. high schooler and future world record holder
Jim Ryun, and the American
Jim Grelle
James Edward Grelle (September 30, 1936 – June 13, 2020) was an American middle-distance runner. He had his best achievements in the 1500 m event, finishing eighth at the 1960 Olympics, winning a gold and a silver medal at the Pan American Gam ...
. Snell then announced his retirement.
Career after retirement from sport
Snell worked for a tobacco company before moving to the United States of America in 1971 to further his education. He gained a B.S. in human performance from the
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...
, and then a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in exercise physiology from
Washington State University
Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...
. He joined
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas as a research fellow in 1981. He was associate professor, Department of Internal Medicine and also director of their Human Performance Center. A member of the
American College of Sports Medicine, Snell was honoured in 1999 as an Inaugural Inductee, International Scholar, into the Athlete Hall of Fame,
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...
.
Adopting a new sport, Snell became an active
orienteer and won his category, men aged 65 and older, in the 2003 United States Orienteering Championship.
[Bay Area Orienteering Club (2003).]
2003 Silva U.S. Orienteering Championships, Fallen Leaf Lake, South Lake Tahoe
baoc.org Retrieved 23 January 2006. He was a past president of the North Texas Orienteering Association and a member of the
United States Orienteering Federation
Orienteering USA (OUSA), formerly United States Orienteering Federation (USOF), is the national governing body for orienteering in the United States. It is recognized by the International Orienteering Federation and the United States Olympic ...
.
Snell also became a competitive
table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
player including competing in Texas state (finishing in the top 4 in the 75+ age category) and U.S. championship events and also the 2017
World Masters Games in Auckland, New Zealand.
Snell died at his home in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
on 12 December 2019, just five days short of turning 81. The cause was heart failure. Miki, his wife, survived him.
Commemorations and awards
Following his success at the Perth Commonwealth Games in 1962, Snell was appointed a
Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
for services in the field of athletics in the
1962 Queen's Birthday Honours. Three years later he was elevated to Officer of the same order in the
1965 New Year Honours.
He was voted New Zealand's Sports Champion of the Century in 2000 and was knighted soon afterwards. In the
2002 New Year Honours
New Years' Honours are announced on or around the date of the New Year in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in supplements to the London Ga ...
, he was appointed a
Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sport, and in
2009, following the restoration of titular honours by the New Zealand government, he accepted redesignation as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and was invested by the
Governor-General of New Zealand
The governor-general of New Zealand ( mi, te kāwana tianara o Aotearoa) is the viceregal representative of the monarch of New Zealand, currently King Charles III. As the King is concurrently the monarch of 14 other Commonwealth realms and ...
,
Sir Anand Satyanand.
Snell was one of five Olympic athletes from New Zealand featured on a series of commemorative
postage stamps issued in August 2004 to commemorate the 2004 Olympic Games. The two dollar stamp issued by
New Zealand Post features a stylized photo of Snell snapping the tape at the finish line of the 800 metres race at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
He was selected by ''
Track and Field News as their "Athlete of the '60's" and was pictured on the cover of the December 1969 issue.
In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (
DSc) by
Massey University
Massey University ( mi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural o ...
in recognition of his work as an
exercise physiologist.
A larger than life-size bronze statue of Peter Snell was erected in his hometown of Ōpunake, Taranaki, and was unveiled on 19 May 2007. The statue is based on a photo of Snell crossing the finish line in the historic race at Wanganui's Cook's Gardens in 1962. A similar bronze statue of Snell was unveiled in Cook's Gardens on 15 August 2009 to commemorate his athletic achievements.
Interviewed by the ''
Wanganui Chronicle'' after the unveiling, Snell said he was internationally known as a miler, but he had never reached his potential over the mile and the 800 metres was probably his best distance. He said his greatest effort was the world 800m/880yard double record set on Lancaster Park a few days after his new mile record, with an 800m time that would have won the gold medal 46 years later at the
Beijing Olympics.
Snell was inducted into the Taranaki Sports Hall of Fame at the Taranaki Sports Awards 2021.
Honorific eponyms
In 2001,
Macleans College in Auckland created Snell House as part of its "whanau house" system.
The Peter Snell Youth Village, on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, in North Auckland, New Zealand, is also named after him. They run holiday camps for young people.
Snell Drive, in the
Hamilton suburb of
Chartwell, is named in Snell's honour.
Peter Snell Street is a street in the Bay of Plenty town of Whakatane.
Personal bests
See also
*
Notes
* En route in the 3:54.1 mile.
References
;Cited references
;General references
* Snell, Peter and Gilmour, Garth (1965). ''No Bugles, No Drums''. Auckland: Minerva.
External links
Page with Photo, one of two at ''Sporting Heroes''Peter Snell – Athlete– A documentary made in 1964 available to view on
NZ On Screen
NZ On Screen is a state-funded online promotional showcase of New Zealand television and film. Funded by NZ On Air, it provides free worldwide access to NZ-produced television, film and music videos. Content is streamed and the webpages provide ...
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snell, Peter
1938 births
2019 deaths
Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit
New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People in sports awarded knighthoods
New Zealand male middle-distance runners
Olympic athletes of New Zealand
Olympic gold medalists for New Zealand
Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand
New Zealand emigrants to the United States
New Zealand orienteers
Male orienteers
World record setters in athletics (track and field)
University of California, Davis alumni
People from Ōpunake
Sportspeople from Te Aroha
People educated at Mount Albert Grammar School
Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
Exercise physiologists
Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
American orienteers
Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners