V 9 N. 51 Sir Peter Snell R.I.P.

It is with much sadness that we report the passing of a true legend in the world of track and field.
Peter Snell, 1960 800 meters,  1964 800 meters and 1500 meters Olympic Champion who passed away in his sleep last Saturday December 7, 2019.
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His 800 in 1960 of 1:46.3 was an Olympic record. 

That  win in Rome was a bit of a surprise to everyone, although Murray Halberg had earlier in the day shown the world what the new school of Lydiard trained Kiwis were capable of doing winning the 5000 meters.  In 1962 in his homeland, Peter would take down the world records in the 880 and mile on a short grass track and better the mile a second time on cinders a year later.  He also set a world record at 1000 yards the first time he raced on an indoor track in Los Angeles. 

Winning the 1500 meters at Tokyo

In 1964 he lowered the 800 OR again to 1:45.1, then took the 1500 in 3:38.1 which did not break Herb Elliott's record.  Peter was one that will be remembered for a long time for many reasons but his powerful stride and strength down the straight will be difficult to forget.  He could kick with anyone in his prime and only rarely lost a race unless his fitness level was not what it should have been at the time.  He made a name for himself athletically but then proved himself more than capable in the classroom, earning a Phd. in Excercise Physiology under Phil Gollnick at Washington State University and then  working for many years at the University of Texas in Dallas Fort Worth.

When he retired from running, I believe he was working for a cigarette company, Rothmans,  in New Zealand, but found this work limiting if he were putting in appearances for a product that was so detrimental to the public health even though they supported sport.  In 1971,  he came to the US to participate in a TV game show Super Stars where well known athletes competed with each other in a number of events not necessarily  relating to the sport where the made their name.  Peter won enough money to fund his way through university and eventually settled in the US.

Ten years ago he began experiencing heart problems and collapsed on the squash or racqetball court and was revived  He was diagnosed with nonischemic cardio myopathy.  He was also fitted with an implanted defibrillator.   Recently he had been having more cardiac trouble and had passed out at the wheel of his car and struck several vehicles.   Clearly things were not right and he eventually succumbed to heart disease.

Christchurch, NZ 880  with our friend John Bork in the AAU top January, 1962

By 1964, his two Olympic wins were no surprise to anyone.  The only question was who would be second in the two races.  Interestingly Bob Schul ran just as fast his last 200 meters in his 5000 to win that event and on a wet, soggy track.  Add those three races to Billy Mills' wonderful win in the 10,000 and and Abebe Bikila's 2nd marathon victory, and  1964 became  one of the greatest Olympics distance shows of all time.

See our earlier issue on that mile record race in Wanganui, NZ  and a follow up article with an exclusive conversation with Peter.

Mile Record at Wanganui       

A Brief Conversation With Peter Snell in 2012

We’ve recently reported on the racing in New Zealand when Peter Snell set records in the mile, 880, 800,  and then went to Los Angeles and set the indoor 1000 yards record and 880 yards as well during that race.  Ernie Cunliffe put us in touch with Peter, and I sent him a few questions about the race at Wanganui, and he graciously responded. 

My questions centered around the effort of running on a short (less than quarter mile ) track, grass surface, what his expectations were going into the race, and what Arthur Lydiard’s role was in that week when the races occurred.  I also asked Peter about getting into his chosen profession of exercise physiology.   I enquired if he knew one of my former colleagues in the field,  John Ivy, who also works in Texas.  Below are the replies that Peter Snell sent.

Wednesday May 16, 2012

George,

Ernie forwarded the piece on Wanganui written by Roy (Mason)  and quite frankly he has it all in a nutshell.  I’m not sure there is much I can add except my thought processes leading up to and during the race.  For example based on the New Years Day run mentioned by Roy, which was done 3 weeks after racing a marathon and during volume intervals in conjunction with long runs, I felt that 3.57 was conservatively realistic – in keeping with my preference for not raising expectations too high publicly. 

Perhaps you can give me some guidance. 

Regards,

Peter

George,

The above draft was written last week and I lost a large chunk of the text when my application crashed.  I was too bummed to try and do it over again.

I had seen very little of Arthur that summer so all he had to go on were race performances, including the marathon, leading up to the Wanganui event.  He may have been aware of my New Year’s day race and put 2 & 2 together, as did I.  He was present at Wanganui but I did not see him until after the race when news people found him and brought him over for a photo attached if I can find it)  His contribution was to publicly predict I would do 3:55 thus adding unwelcome pressure but it certainly filled the stadium.  The non-standard track was not a problem as many of the club tracks on which I did my training were 5 laps to the mile grass.

I preferred firm closely mowed well-rolled grass to loose cinders such as at Tokyo and Rome.  Californian clay tracks were the best and I hated the bitumen track at San Diego.  Too bad today’s rubberized tracks weren’t developed. 

Yes I know John Ivy very well.  My path to becoming an exercise physiologist started in 1974 when I enrolled as a freshman at UC Davis to educate myself out of an unsatisfying Sports PR job with a tobacco company.  Thanks to an invitation to Superstars late 1976, I made enough money to stay on after graduating in 1977 and spend 4 years at Washington State to with Dave Costill’s colleague Phil Gollnick. 

Thanks for the Jazy photo.  I notice Michael Bernard in the photo.  Jazy must have thought the 5000 was the easier race to win.

Regards,

Peter

Wednesday June 6, 2012

George I just saw your photo of Ron Delany and find it interesting to see how well the 1960’s runners are aging.  With this in mind I’m attaching a photo of me, Jim Bailey (1^st sub-4 on American soil, 1956) and Dave Wottle.  Also a pic of some good 800 guys at reunion organized by the late Bud Greenspan.

Regards,

Peter  

Peter Snell, Tom Courtney, John Woodruff, Dave Wottle

Peter Snell, Jim Bailey, Dave Wottle

From and anonymous source: 
" One of my favorite quotes about runners comes from a U S track man (whose name I have forgotten) who competed against Snell when he was touring the United States shortly after being married:

"If we can't beat Snell on his honeymoon, we'll never be able to beat him."

They couldn't!"