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December 14, 2019 9:57am by David Farrar

RIP Sir Peter Snell

New Zealand’s greatest athlete has died. Rest In Peace Sir Peter Snell

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NK

Very sad and shocked to read this news. What an inspiration he was, in many ways. He still holds the NZ 800 metre record, and not even Nick Willis can beat it.

I think he is certainly our greatest ever Olympian. I think there’s an argument whether he’s our greatest ever athlete, but that’s for another day.

For now, rest well Sir Peter. May your legend live on.
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December 14, 2019 10:15am
andrew davies

Along with Colin Meads, Snell was my boyhood hero. Truly inspirational, not only to a young lad, but to a whole nation.
22 1
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December 14, 2019 10:17am
Wangas Feral

Wangas and Cooks Gardens remembers him.

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/peter-snell-breaks-world-mile-record
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December 14, 2019 10:39am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  I hope the sicko who is downticking these posts realises what a total loser he/she is.
  
  16 7
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  December 14, 2019 1:24pm
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    Captain
    I think we can all justifiably assume that it is one or more of the usual suspects. We also can assume that they know they are an abject loser. They aren’t even fit to wipe Peter Snell’s ass.
    
    12 5
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    December 14, 2019 3:53pm
    - namron
      
      Surely we all have the freedom to express our opinions!
      The global billions of us all have DIFFERENT
      backgrounds, growth and experiences etc which can will rise to different opinions to yours!
      I recall him calling at a rural school in Southland in the late 60s with his tobacco message!
      [Must admit that I recall very little of the occasion, but the “tobacco message” could tarnish my opinion!]
      However, his athletic accomplishments can not be denied and are global successes that NZ should be very proud of.
      
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      December 14, 2019 6:07pm
      - The Proper Ghandi
        
        Of course you have the right to express your opinion. Even if it is an incoherent mishmash of apparently random words and phrases. However, that doesn’t mean that people who are down ticking comments that pay respect to a deceased champion aren’t inherently odious people who are full of hate and self-loathing. That’s my opinion.
        
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        December 14, 2019 7:11pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  I was there in January 1962 when Snell broke the World Mile Record. We travelled over from Palmerston North to watch, and the traffic all the way over and back was bumper-to-bumper.
  
  Sir Peter was a magnificent athlete, but even more was an absolutely top man. The term “great” is thrown around with much abandon, but Snell was definitely a great athlete. He was voted as our top athlete of the 20th century, and nothing that’s happened since lowers him from that lofty pedestal.
  
  A statue of Sir Peter stands over the finishing line of the athletics track at Cook’s Gardens now, celebrating a very special night when Whanganui was world news. Rest peacefully Sir Peter; your final lap is completed.
  
  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CDZe5sOwrwRBFBD3SIQpZk6T7BicB3T1
  
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  December 14, 2019 4:23pm
- G152
  
  Yup. I was there
  
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  December 15, 2019 8:17am
Maggie Pie

My partners mum remembers Peter Snell well. He was a few years older than her and a real sporting icon. She was saying in his day just how much the youth of this country looked up to him, and what a great job he did encouraging them to smoke ‘Rothmans’.
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December 14, 2019 10:40am
- David Garrett
  
  Maggie: Yeah, and American doctors were once happy to go on the record recommending Chesterfield cigarettes…This is not the time or the thread to have a sly dig about an endorsement Snell almost certainly lived to regret.
  
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  December 14, 2019 11:21am
  - Swifty
    
    More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.
    
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/jollyboy/1071649711
    
    7 2
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    December 14, 2019 11:24am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Apologies DG…..no offence meant.
    None of my posts are ever designed to offend anyone.
    
    14 4
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    December 14, 2019 12:49pm
    - David Garrett
      
      No offence taken, and no apology necessary Maggie. I just thought yours was an inappropriate comment on what is effectively an obituary thread. Have a good weekend…with your partner!
      
      11 4
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      December 14, 2019 1:51pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Thanks DG.
        But hey, if you DO want to be offended – then just take a quik peek at my post on GD @ 2:03pm.
        The sort of repulsive behaviour depicted there would offend most people imo.
        
        7 2
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        December 14, 2019 4:38pm
mikenmildagain

Peter Snell also wrote a great book focusing on his transition from athletics to an academic career in the US. Prize money from wining the ‘Superstars’ TV show, both here and in the US, funded his studies.
While it’s always hard to compare across different sports and eras, my opinion is that he was our greatest athlete, and his achievements are unlikely to be matched.
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December 14, 2019 10:42am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I agree mikenmild. As if winning the 800 metres at Rome in 1960 wasn’t enough, he then did the 800/1500 double at Tokyo four years later.
  
  And his New Zealand record for the 800 meters/880 yards set at Lancaster Park in Christchurch a week after his Whanganui mile record still stands today, 57 years on. Both those races were run on grass tracks as well, which makes the times even more remarkable.
  
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  December 14, 2019 4:26pm
Tauhei Notts

The Chairperson of a committee I am on told us one of the most memorable times in her life was when she was Rome as a single woman aged 22; when against all odds Snell got up to beat Moens in the 800; then one hour later Murray Halberg won the 5000 metres. Few New Zealand women went on overseas working holidays in those days.
She will be the first to say that in 2019 she is no longer a spring chicken. But she is still a sprightly wonderful woman.
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December 14, 2019 10:44am
pdm

RIP – a great New Zealander.

One of my old work mates ran against him at either Ohakune or Raetihi in the mid 1960’s – a great experience he said and Snell refers to it in his book as he and those travelling with him took a wrong turn and got lost on the way to the venue.
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December 14, 2019 11:10am
Woodstein

A mighty New Zealander. May he rest in peace.
18 2
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December 14, 2019 11:22am
- pdm
  
  Woodstein – amazing you and I could attract down ticks. That person must have had an intense dislike for Sir Peter.
  
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  December 14, 2019 2:15pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Na,
    there is an obsessive down-ticker on KB.
    
    Seems to be a fairly harmless disability.
    
    5 2
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    December 14, 2019 7:21pm
john

I remember the absolute awe with which my father held for Peter Snell. As a professional runner he was NZ mile and half mile junior champion in 1949 and 1950. His simple comment when asked how he would have compared being 7 years older, ‘ I would still be running the final bend’. He was at Lancaster Park, stopwatch in hand as Snell broke the records mentioned above.
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December 14, 2019 11:54am
OECD rank 22 kiwi

Sad news indeed as New Zealand loses another one of its greats.
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December 14, 2019 12:35pm
Kiwi Investor

A truly great New Zealander. A hero of mine and an inspiration for generations of Kiwi runners. Willis, Walker, Dixon, Taylor, and Quax, all stood on the shoulder of a giant, Sir Peter Snell. My thoughts are with his family and friends.
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December 14, 2019 1:10pm
- Swifty
  
  Well said.
  
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  December 14, 2019 1:41pm
scrubone

I must confess, I thought he’d died a few months back. Must have been thinking of someone else.
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December 14, 2019 2:13pm
bruceavon

Great athlete, awesome man. he still holds the 800m NZ record he set in 1962. rip.
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December 14, 2019 3:09pm
The Proper Ghandi

https://www.olympic.org.nz/news/new-zealands-proud-history-in-the-1500m/

This photo from Tokyo 1964 says so much about Snell. He’s just crushed the field with relative ease, and the other guys are straining their guts out in his wake. We’ll never produce another Peter Snell.
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December 14, 2019 3:59pm
backster

I saw this mighty athlete run and win at a jam packed Basin Reserve. I was up against the rail and almost next along among the crowd was Keith Holyoake the Prime Minister. It was a unique and memorable occasion and Peters’ death signifies the end of a era. Unfortunately one to which I belong.
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December 14, 2019 4:16pm
toby1845

Why the downticks to these comments? Are people passed? Or do they have at fingers, and are reading on the loo? Or are they bitter, twisted losers?
7 1
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December 14, 2019 6:52pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I think someone gets a kick out of being offensive to KB posters when they acknowledge other folks achievements.
  
  8 2
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  December 14, 2019 7:25pm
Brian McDonald

I saw most of the news clip tonight and some of the old footage throughout the day. I recalled him once saying after his retirement that he had not been appreciated in NZ and was never ‘offered’ anything.
As a kid it seemed irreconcilable that there was some sort of fracture between the great hero and his 1000s of fans who had tuned into radio to hear live his races throughout the world. He was the real people’s champion like no other.
It was clear however, that I had missed the fact that later he had reconciled his position and appreciated just how admired he was by the NZ public. In many ways that completed Peter’s story as he eventually came in from the cold to understand how much regard there was for him within New Zealand.
I was once able to watch him run at the ‘old’ Eden Park at an afternoon athletics meeting where he was top of the card – school kids abounded to watch this man who looked to have the build of an All Black 3/4 and strength to match.
He must have been intimidating for opponents not only by his size but by the reported incredible mileages his peer group ran in the revolutionary Lydiard way – unequalled at the time in the world.
The news clip ran through the names of the runners of that golden time in New Zealand athletics, something NZ is unlikely to see again. But as said above he was the true champion who came to be at peace with himself as he so much deserved.
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December 14, 2019 7:14pm
- GoVege
  
  I heard that he wanted to study at university here but didn’t have UE.
  Apparently there was a huge outcry at the possibility he might be able to go study at tertiary level without first gaining UE.
  My mum said she once saw him and he gave her the most beautiful friendly smile.
  Sad he is gone.
  
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  December 15, 2019 10:51pm
Morrissey

[Mod: It takes a pretty twisted soul to use the obituary of a great New Zealander for a political rant which is totally off topic and doesn’t even mention Snell. Have a month off, and come back next year.]
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December 15, 2019 7:39am
G152

Mod. Any chance you could extend that ban to 2021 ??
Please
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December 15, 2019 8:21am

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