Olympic hero takes it all in his stride

Peter Snell. Photo / Ross Wiggins, Picture Research / Chris Marriner

Olympian Peter Snell remembers posing for jacked-up action shots of him only twice: for an article in Sports Illustrated magazine; and for this image, taken for a feature article after a month of world records (the mile in Wanganui, then the 800m and 880 yard events in Christchurch).

"This is my power photograph," says Snell, from his Texas home. "There's no way I could do that now!"

Surely no one would expect it of him now?

"You never know, in New Zealand," retorts the 70-year-old, who left to escape the pressure to conform, to say the right things.

It was a sunny January day in 1962, and Herald photographer Ross Wiggins wanted to evoke Snell's physical power by shooting him from slightly downhill.

Snell - since voted New Zealand's Sports Champion of the 20th Century - dug out his famous number 83 "surprise gold medal uniform" that he wore at the 1960 Rome Olympics, and obligingly ran backwards and forwards across a slope west of the Auckland War Memorial Museum in the Domain.

"There were several runs trying different things as photographers have you do," he remembers. "I was interested in him getting a good picture too.

"There was a track on the outer Domain, but this wasn't done on the track. It was an arty-type shot."

For all its artifice, it's one of his favourite photos of himself.

"I was known as a power runner," he says, "and I think when you look at that photograph you see that power, you see a lot of muscles standing out and it looks really powerful.

"On the other hand it lacks any true significance ... whereas other photographs where you're winning something important are more cherished."

At least this photo had some authenticity, with him running on the grass, his preferred training surface.

The Sports Illustrated photo was a complete fiction. Recalls Snell: "I was in Christchurch and the guy was enthusiastic about the view from the top of the Port Hills. I said, I don't train over this sort of stuff, I normally train on roads. He said we'll get this because it's a nice shot. I ran along the hill and sure enough that's the one they used, and it looks like I'm a mountain goat."