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Peter
Snell
In the 1960s and 1970s, New Zealand had fostered great track and field athletes and especially middle-distance runners. Perhaps the greatest  among them was Peter Snell.
Snell was born in December 1938 and took up sport from an early age. His favourite sports were tennis and rugby.
He started training systematically in running at the age of 18 years old, after the exhortations of his future trainer, Arthur Lydiard, who was the first to distinguish Snell's extraordinary talent in the 800m and 1500m. There were many people who did not believe that Snell could excel in those contests, because his build was unusually big for a middle-distance runner.
However, the appearance of the New Zealander champion in the 1960 Rome Olympics convinced even the most incredulous ones. Despite the fact that no-one knew him beyond the boundaries of his country, he took everyone by surprise, when he won the 800m final and his first gold Olympic medal.
The following years until the 1964 Tokyo Olympics were full of successes for Snell. In 1961, with the team of New Zealand he set a new world record in the 4x1mile relay and a year later, in the games of the Commonwealth, he broke the world record in the 800m, in the 880 yards and in the mile.
In the Tokyo Olympics, apart from the 800m, he decided to compete in the 1500m as well. That meant that he should have to compete in several races before he could make it to the final, something that made even his trainer lack confidence. Nevertheless, his decision vindicated him. Following carefully the tactic he had planned, he succeeded in winning gold medals in both events, something that no other athlete had achieved since 1920.
But the career of the New Zealander runner did not last long. In 1965 in a tour in Europe and the USA he was not in a good competitive condition. That disappointed him and made him give up sport permanently. He is considered until today one of the most important athletes in middle-distance running in the world. He was voted best middle-distance runner in the 1960s-1970s, in so far as he was the holder of eight world records, apart from his Olympic successes, until 1965.
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