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Overview
This shoe was worn by New Zealander Peter Snell when he won the 800 metre race at the Rome Summer Olympic Games in 1960. He was relatively unknown at this point, but instantly became an international athlete and a national celebrity. He was named New Zealand Sportsman of the Year for 1960. He went on to win two more golds at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 in an unrepeated double of the men's 800m and 1500m.
Sir Peter Snell
Sir Peter Snell (1938-2019) was one of the world’s greatest athletes in one of the world’s most admired sports – middle-distance running. In 2000 he was named New Zealand’s Sports Champion of the 20th Century. During his running career he won three Olympic gold medals, two British Empire and Commonwealth Games gold medals (at Perth in 1962), and set six world records. In 2002 he was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sport, becoming Sir Peter in 2009.
Snell was a pupil of the master coach Arthur Lydiard who was responsible for the finest era in New Zealand athletics from 1951-66. Lydiard went on to inspire the international explosion of jogging for health and fitness.
Design
Brothers Arthur Lydiard (1917-2004) and Walter (Wally) Lydiard (1920-1994) worked in shoe manufacturing in this period, and experimented with producing better road running shoes than were available at the time. Wally began by creating a running shoe which was endorsed by Arthur. Then a limited number of spiked track shoes were made including this shoe worn by Snell at the Rome Olympics.
As the six finalists prepared for the final 800m race in Rome, Adidas initially gave shoes to five of the finalists. Snell hadn't been considered a medal prospect, so when he won the semi-final, an Adidas official quickly made sure Snell received a pair of their shoes. Regardless of whether or not they were better than Lydiard's shoes, Snell recalls the psychological effect of wearing his winning shoes: 'there was no way I would switch shoes at the last minute'. Lydiard added a small rubber heel to counter the jarring effect of the cinder track (Snell was used to running on grass). Cinder tracks were harder and had the potential of damaging blood corpuscles in the legs, causing the muscles to overheat and restrict blood flow. After Snell won the race and mounted the dais in his spiked track shoes to receive his medal, Adidas officials immediately asked where he had acquired them.
The other shoe
In 1963, Snell gave the matching left shoe to Tauranga Girls' College as a mounted trophy for sporting competitions between Tauranga and Rotorua Girls' College. The trophy was named 'The Shoe' (like 'The Boot' trophy in inter-school rugby given by All Black Don Clarke three years earlier), and is still competed for.