Snell delivers golden gifts to Te Papa
Te Papa visitors can now enjoy the fruits of Olympian Sir Peter Snell’s success after the legendary runner’s donation of gold medals and other memorabilia.
At a special ceremony at Te Papa in Wellington yesterday morning 78-year-old Snell donated 14 items, including two of his Olympic gold medals, and a specially-made right shoe he wore while taking out gold in the 800 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
The decision to donate came after Snell read about Te Papa’s $122,500 bid for the singlet he wore in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics – a bid later withdrawn over suspicions it wasn’t the real thing.
Snell said the items, which also included Commonwealth Games gold medals and a torch from the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, were easy to give away.
‘‘I’m past looking at it in the cabinet and so on. I don’t need the actual physical things to look at, I offered Te Papa everything.’’
The left shoe of the pair, made especially for Snell by running coach Arthur Lydiard, had previously been made into an athletics trophy for girls’ schools in the Bay of Plenty.
Snell’s competitive spirit has not waned, with he and his wife taking up table tennis and currently preparing to compete at the 2017 World Masters Games in Auckland.
‘‘It’s dominated my life somewhat. We play five, maybe six times, a week for three hours,’’ he said.
While Snell said sport had given him a great deal of self-worth during his life, he advised budding sportsmen not to make it the only thing in their lives.
During the powhiri at Te Papa’s Marae, Snell recounted how he found himself working in PR for a tobacco company, and facing what he described as a ‘‘futureless existence’’ after his Olympic triumphs.
‘‘If you’ve screwed up on academics and so on, you could pay the price, as I think I did, but I was able to somehow recover through good fortune.
His said the donation was a chance to reaffirm his links with New Zealand, after spending a large chunk of his life in Dallas, Texas, where he moved to study and work in the area of exercise physiology.
The special display featuring the two Olympic gold medals and shoe will be on show at Te Papa until July 23, while the other 14 items will be included in New Zealand’s national history collection.
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry said Snell’s achievements had inspired generations of Kiwi athletes.
Other items gifted by Snell included three world record plaques and a tankard awarded for the mile world record in Whanganui in 1962.
Two trophies for New Zealand Sportsman of the Year from 1960 and 1964 were also donated.