Peter Snell, Athlete (1964)

New Zealand National Film Unit presents Peter Snell, Athlete (1964)

Widely considered one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time, Peter Snell broke the world mile record on 27 January 1962, on a grass track at Cook's Garden, Whanganui. Snell covered the distance in 3 minutes 54.4 seconds. A week later, he set new world records for both the 800 metres and the 880 yards at Christchurch. He then won gold and set a new record for the 880 yards at the Commonwealth Games in Perth, 1962. Snell also won gold for the mile at those same games.

Snell came to international attention when he won the gold medal and set a new national record for the 800m at the Rome Olympics in 1960. Four years later, at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 he won the gold, and set a new Olympic record in the 800 metres, and won gold in the 1500 metres. This double achievement was not achieved again by a male athlete in open global championship until Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain won both golds at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics at Helsinki.

While Snell had one of the shortest careers of world famous international sportsmen, he 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 Hall Of Fame, named in 2012.

In all, Snell set five individual world records and joined with fellow New Zealand athletes to set a new four by one mile relay record as well. He was at the peak of his career in 1965 and promising much more, when he stunned New Zealand and the athletics world by announcing his retirement.

This film, from 1964, takes a look at Snell's career, and comes from the collection of films made by the National Film Unit, held by Archives New Zealand.

For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter twitter.com/ArchivesNZ
Material from Archives New Zealand.


Direction and Photography Lynton Diggle

Editing by John Cooper

Sound by Ron Skelley

Production by Geoffrey Scott and Oxley Hughan

DV File of Beta SP Telecine (Tape 1) of 16mm film- W3471/16BW314