Peter Snell's One-track Mind

Only the best athletes in the world can win an Olympic gold medal and Peter Snell won three. He's one of the greatest runners the world has ever seen and he's still going strong. Peter Snell is in his mid 60s now and is an American orienteering champion for his age group.

The Olympics are about to begin. This week's story brings you an Olympic legend and this legend began in Opunake.

Rewind to 1960

This was the year Peter Snell won his first gold medal. Did these things really happen way back then?

1. Cyclists get to ride in cycling lanes for the first time.

2. Television begins in New Zealand but only in the four main cities. There is two hours of television each night.

3. There is still more indigenous timber being milled than exotic timber. (Indigenous trees are those that have always been here like kauri and totara. Exotic trees are those like pinus radiata that were planted and grown for their timber.)

4. Barry Crump publishes his first book called a "Good Keen Man". It becomes a best seller, the author writes some more and he becomes a bit of a legend.

5. New Zealand still has capital punishment. That means a guilty person can be sentenced to death.

Answers at the bottom of the page.

Medal hunt

The first gold medal for New Zealand was won at the 1928 Olympics. Look here to find out how many golds we have won since then. 

Check your tally with a classmate and then find out if any other New Zealander besides Peter Snell has won more than one Olympic gold medal.

What a team!

Peter Snell won a gold medal in the 1500 metres race in 1964. Two more New Zealanders have also won this glamour event at the Olympic Games. Check here again to find the two other golden runners.

Word watch

The words below are all in this week's story. Decide if the best meaning is (a) or (b) and then check your answers as you read the story.

1. fledgling (a) baby bird or (b) young runner

2. attribute (a) a quality or (b) a way of thinking

3. deficit (a) shortage of money or (b) loss

4. obligatory (a ) busy or (b) necessary

5. accolades (a ) achievements or (b) honours

6. high achiever (a) a person who performs to high standard or (b) a winner

7. terse tutelage (a) strict teaching or (b) getting instructions that are brief and to the point

8. humiliating (a) degrading or (b) pathetic

9. penchant (a) something you wear around your neck or (b) a liking for

10. kudos (a) credit (b) applause

Answers at the bottom of the page.

Winning qualities

Read this week's story through to "Titles still coming."

List the qualities Peter Snell had in his Olympic days that made him a winner. His coach, Arthur Lydiard saw these qualities when he told Peter he could be one of New Zealand's greatest runners.

Circle the qualities in your list that probably also helped Peter build a successful life.

As fast as today!

Peter Snell is the only man to have won both the 800 metres and the 1500 metres at the same Olympics. His time in the 800 metre race in 1964 would have won him a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. That's 36 years later! Snell's time in 1964 was 1.45.1. The gold medal winner in 2000 ran the same distance in 1.45.08

Running times have steadily decreased over the past 40 years so it shows just how good Peter Snell was. He still holds the National Record in New Zealand for the 1500 metres.

 List some advantages athletes have today compared to when Snell was running? Consider things like technology, diet and training ideas.

Think, pair and then share your ideas with a classmate.

Total focus

Read the last paragraph again from "Mindset of a winner". Do you think the photo above is from before or after a race? Write the words for a thought bubble that could go with this photo.

Imagine the headlines!

One of New Zealand's greatest days in sport happened at the Rome Olympics. Peter Snell won an Olympic gold medal and just one hour later his friend Murray Halberg won another gold.

Write the headline that might have appeared in the Daily News the day after these great events.

Older and bolder!

Read the next part of the story "Titles still coming" to find out what Peter's new book is all about.

Find the clues that tell you that the qualities Peter used to win Olympic gold medals, are still with him today.

What if?

The next three parts of the story tell us about a time in Peter Snell's life when he was deciding whether it was worth even trying to be a top runner.

Read through to "Beating the big one and then decide what would have happened next if the "What ifs" below really did happen. Would they have changed the direction of Peter Snell's life? You decide.

1. What if Peter had been picked for a rep rugby or cricket team in his last year of school?

2. What if the well known runner Bill Baillie had not been in the Te Aroha race that Peter won?

3. What if Peter hadn't met Arthur Lydiard?

Beating the big one

This part of the story is all about a tough training run and Peter's first attempt was a bit of a disaster. Read all about it and then write a poem like the one below. This time though make sure your poem shows that Peter is a lot fitter and a lot stronger than the first time he ran.

This poem is called a picture cinquain.

Line one is a sentence to introduce the subject.

Line two has four adjectives that describe the main subject.

Line three is another sentence that says what the subject is doing.

Line four has four adverbs. They are words that describe the action words or verbs

Line five is a sentence to round off the poem by saying what happened.

Mr Fitty?

 

Look at that runner

Exhausted, wooden legged, struggling, determined.

Reeling towards home after a massive training run

Slowly, tiredly, miserably, wobbly,

Collapsing on the couch with an empty tank.

The records fall

Read "Falling of records" and then have a go at running at the pace of Peter Snell. He ran 1.45.1 for the 800 metres. That's one minute, forty-five seconds plus... one tenth of a second. That averages out at just over 13 seconds for each 100 metres.

Measure out a hundred metres on your field at school and see how close you can come to 13 seconds when you sprint this distance.

Look here to find out what the world record is today for the 800 metres. Scroll down and see if Peter Snell's name appears on this page anywhere. If it is, see if he is the oldest athlete there.

A bit of a gripe

Peter and his coach had a disagreement in 1963 so read about this in the last part of the story.

Disagreements are a part of life but Peter says he didn't like the big expectations being put on him. If his coach predicted a big win then the public expected it.

Coach Lydiard probably had a good reason for saying what he did. How do you think he would answer a reporter if he was asked, "Why did you always tell reporters before the race, exactly how Peter Snell would run?"

Fast forward to 2004

Trap shooter, Nadine Stanton was living in Bell Block when she won a gold and a silver medal at the last Commonwealth Games. She's shifted back to Hamilton now and this year she will compete at the Olympic Games in Athens.

Nadine uses a double barrelled shotgun to shoot and smash small flying saucers. The targets fly out of a trench at between 120-130 kilometres per hour. When Nadine shouts "pull" the saucers fly. If you say "pull, bang" as fast as you can, then that's how fast Nadine shoots. She hits the first target when it is about eight metres off the ground.

Nadine will compete in the woman's double trap. It's her favourite event. Two targets fly out at the same time and you have to hit them both. If you wait too long to shoot the first then the second target just flies away!

Trap shooting is an expensive sport. Nadine paid around $200 for ammunition every time she trained for the Commonwealth Games. It hasn't got any cheaper.

SPARC - Sport and Recreation New Zealand is the Government agency that gives money to the different sports and some sports get more than others. SPARC investment in cycling for example, between July 2002 and December 2004 was $1,625,260. Fencing got $10,000, shooting got $ 850,519 but archery didn't get anything. Sailing did well at $3,201,500 as did equestrian at $2,100,650. (Source: Sunday Star Times 4 July.)

Form a group of three and decide how you would fund the different sports. For example should all sports be given the same amount of money? List some criteria that can be used to help decide how much each sport gets. For example, one of the criteria might be how popular the sport is.

Share your group's ideas with others.

Answers

Rewind

1. True

2. True. (Lassie and Robin Hood were two popular programmes.)

3. False. There is more exotic timber milled for the first time ever.

4. True.

5. True. The Crimes Act did away with capital punishment in 1961.

Click to go back to the questions.

Click to go back to the questions.