News Desk
\nWELLINGTON
\nNew Zealand running great Peter Snell, a triple Olympic gold medallist, has died at the age of 80, sports historian Ron Palenski said on Saturday.
\nPalenski, a close friend, said Snell\u2019s wife Miki had phoned him from their home in Dallas to tell him of the death.
\nThe couple were preparing to go shopping when \u201cPeter nodded off, as is not unusual for him. But he didn\u2019t wake up,\u201d Palenski said.
\nSnell, a protege of famed coach Arthur Lydiard, was the most dominant middle-distance runner of his era.
\nHe won gold in the only three Olympic events he contested \u2014 the 800 metres at Rome in 1960 and the 800m and 1500m in Tokyo four years later \u2014 set world records for the mile and 800m and also won dual gold at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth.
\nHe was the first male athlete to win the 800m-1500m double at an Olympics since 1920, a feat that has not been achieved by any male since.
\nShell was voted New Zealand\u2019s \u201cSports Champion of the Century\u201d and was one of 24 inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall Of Fame.
\n\u201cHe is probably the greatest athlete New Zealand has had,\u201d Palenski told AFP.
\nSnell had suffered heart problems for a few years and was unable to attend a recent dinner in Monaco for mile world record holders.
\n\u201cI even tried to go against my heart failure doctor\u2019s advice and showed up at the airport for my flight,\u201d he said in a message to the galaxy of mile stars who attended.
\n\u201cI felt that it was too risky to board an eight-hour flight given how poorly I was feeling at the time.\u201d
\nAfter a relatively short athletics career, Snell retired in 1965 and moved to the United States where he gained a Bachelor of Science in human performance from the University of California, Davis, and then a PhD in exercise physiology from Washington State University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News Desk WELLINGTON New Zealand running great Peter Snell, a triple Olympic gold medallist, has died at the age of 80, sports historian Ron Palenski said on Saturday. Palenski, a close friend, said Snell\u2019s wife Miki had phoned him from their home in Dallas to tell him of the death. The couple were preparing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-97373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n