Discussion: Sir Peter Snell passed away, age 80

Former mile world record holder and Olympic gold medalist Peter Snell of New Zealand has passed away. Snell won three Olympic gold medals and in 1964 became the only male since 1920 to have won the 800m and 1500m at the same Olympics.

Story here.

Snell, as many will know on AP, became involved with orienteering in the US, winning his age group at US Champs and was a president of North Texas Orienteering.

Sad news indeed. I spent quite a bit of time in Dallas in 1999, got to know Peter and Miki pretty well, travel to meets with them. Very fine people.

Thanks for posting. Very sad news. We met up with Miki and Peter a few times at meets as Lyn was in Miki’s class and I was in his, age-wise not running wise. Really nice couple. He was very support of Lyn’s running.

Very sad news. My condolences to Miki. They contributed greatly to NTOA and OUSA. I remember several of my junior orienteers / runners being thrilled to meet Peter at a meet just a couple years ago.

So sad. I was really thrilled to meet him, and I remember a few years later when I was working with a running coach (Matt -- not Matthew -- Centrowitz) who told me Peter was his idol. So I got something autographed, maybe an o' map ;-), for my coach, who was very excited.
A legend.

A memory of Peter: we were in North America at an orienteering awards ceremony. Perhaps it was APOC, as there were quite a few kiwis there. Peter and Miki were sitting with the kiwis and a youngster was called up for several awards. Peter said who's that, she's got potential, found the dinner menu or something and wrote "Best wishes Angela" and signed it for her. One of the greats, and also humble and down to earth.

Getting to meet Peter was one of the high point of orienteering in the US for me. Genuinely a legend of the 4-minute mile era.

All hail Peter, certainly a candidate for the most famous person I ever met, and a genuinely nice and friendly fellow. The Snells were regulars at the 1000-Day way back when, and it was always nice to see them, and great to know that among the ragtag crew in our obscure sport, we had at least one of the world's historically top athletes. One of my points of petty pride was the day in Colorado, near the end of a long course, when I passed Peter Snell! (On a different course, and 23 years my senior.)

Another memory: I met Peter in very typical US orienteering meet fashion - we'd parked next to each other and were each using our cars as lockers, getting ready to run. I was fairly new to orienteering and made sure to talk to everyone I could, so I walked over, introduced myself, and asked his name. I didn't make the connection (orienteers only exist in orienteering contexts, obviously) and said, "your name sounds familiar, I must've seen it in some results or something." (!!)

He gave a little wave and replied, humbly, "Oh, I have a running background." Still didn't click and it wasn't until later that day that I worked it out. It was always a delight to chat with Peter and Miki and they certainly contributed to making me feel like the US orienteering community had lots of good people in it.

Another short story. Lisa and I carpooled with Miki and Peter to an NTOA event. As it happened, everyone placed that day but Peter. Sir Peter endured a long ride home of ribbing due to being the only one in the car without a medal. He could have shut us down at any time but he gracefully let us have our fun. In the end, he was much more “peter” than “sir peter”.

Peter was a really good guy. I’m really going to miss him.

6 months after discovering orienteering, Nels Holmberg 'grabbed' me to assist with Start at US Champs in Missouri. Then Nels invited me to join the group for dinner and I got introduced to Peter and Miki. Though a fan of his in the 60's, it took a while to sink in, "Oh, THAT Peter Snell." Always pleasant to chat with Peter and Miki at regional meets.

Peter was an idol for this high school and college miler. I read everything I could find about him and adopted his training regimen. It was astounding to find him next to me at an O starting line 30 years later.