Mills says confidence and focus played big part in career

Snell on the winner's podium after the 1500m race, with silver medalist Josef Odlozil of Czechoslovakia (left) and fellow Kiwi John Davies. Photo / AP

Much had happened to Peter Snell in the years between his Olympic glories.

So had he changed much?

According to Les Mills, who was at Rome and Tokyo with Snell as part of the New Zealand athletic contingent, yes, and no.

Yes in terms of his athletic stature; but, for all his gathered fame, not in terms of manner and personality.

"He was obviously a much more accomplished athlete by Tokyo, where he was unbeatable," Mills, the former Auckland mayor who contested the shot putt and discus at both Games, said. "In Rome, on the day he was the best. By Tokyo he was physically phenomenal, the complete deal.

"As a person, Peter was always very focused, had tunnel vision for what he wanted and where he wanted to go and how he wanted to get there. That's a focus not many athletes have."

Mills remembers Snell as a friendly, slightly introspective person, certainly not brash or boastful.

"I imagine he would have had a very great effect on people like John Davies and Bill Baillie. He was always a pleasure to be around."

Two examples of Snell the man and athlete stick firmly with Mills. His reluctance to bang his own drum showed out at a training camp Mills ran for teenagers some time later.

Would Snell come and talk to the group and give some tips or recollections?

"He said, 'Aw, I don't think I'd want to do that. I don't like doing that sort of thing'."

A bit of arm twisting ended with them doing a Q and A for the young athletes.

"The kids were enthralled. He sat there for an hour talking and they didn't want him to stop. He was going great.

"Once he started he was an inspiration to them. It was sometimes getting him started that was the hard thing to do.

"He didn't put himself out there but he certainly had the mana seldom attached to an athlete, but a quiet sort of mana."

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Mills had lunch with the great American thrower Al Oerter. The winner of three Olympic discus titles, and on his way to a fourth, Mills knew Oerter had been troubled by injury.

"I said, 'how's the injury?' Al said it was 'all right', in a way which suggested it probably wasn't."

Mills asked if he felt confident.

Oerter leaned forward. "There are people who could beat me - but they're going to have to throw an awful long way," he told Mills.

The next day, Oerter smashed the field and collected the Olympic record.

"He was supremely confident that even with this injury it would take something very remarkable to stop him."

Snell has never talked in those terms, but Mills reckons it is an accurate comparison.
"I think Peter felt the same in Tokyo. Short of being tripped up, spiked or get a dose of a horrible lurgy, he was going to win."

Last weekend, Mills hosted a reunion of the athletics squad from Tokyo. Snell was unable to attend. The recollections would have been stirred, tales grown with the years. But in Snell's case there would be no need for embellishment. The achievements speak for themselves.