Peter Snell

Sir Peter George Snell, KNZM, MBE (born 17 December 1938 in Opunake) is a former New Zealand athlete, now resident in Texas. He had one of the shortest careers of world famous international sportsmen, yet achieved so much that he was voted New Zealand’s "Sports Champion of the (20th) Century". A protege of the great New Zealand athletics coach Arthur Lydiard, Snell is known for the three Olympic and two Commonwealth gold medals he won.

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They even called him god-like; the Snell whose power and timing took him into the super-league of track athletes.
National titles for 880 yd and the mile. Olympic Gold and Record for 800m in Rome 1960. Empire and Commonwealth Games Gold and Record for 880 yd plus Gold for mile at Perth 1962. Olympic Gold and Record for 800m plus Gold for 1500m at Tokyo 1964. Five individual and one relay world record - 800m, 880 yd, 1200m, mile (1962, '64), 4 x 1 mile relay. Became Doctor of Philosophy in Sports Medicine.

Peter 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 Peter Snell snapping the tape at the finish line of the 800 metres race at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (DSc) from Massey University in recognition of his work as an Exercise Physiologist. On 14 August 2009, he took part in a ceremony in Wellington that changed the honours received during the previous government to a traditional knighthood.

A larger than life-size bronze statue of Peter Snell was erected in his hometown of Opunake, 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 a 800m time that would have won the gold medal 46 years later at the Beijing Olympics.