Pages tagged with: athletics

New Zealand athletes prepare for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada. Among the athletes featured are Olympic gold medallists Yvette Williams and Murray Halberg.

Photograph from Jack Lovelock's albums showing his victory at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

A cutting from the New York Sun newspaper, showing Jack Lovelock just after he had broken the world mile record in 1933

Jack Lovelock surrounded by wellwishers after his victory over rivals Glen Cunningham and Bill Bonthron in the 'Mile of the Century' run

One of our greatest athletes, Berlin Olympic gold medallist Jack Lovelock led a remarkably full life before his tragic death in 1949, just a few days shy of his 40th birthday.

In 1976 New Zealand was at the centre of a furore that undermined the Montreal Games.

Yvette Williams jumping at Carisbrook, Dunedin

The sports writer Peter Heidenstrom rated Yvette Williams as his 'New Zealand Athlete of the Century'. There is no doubt that she was one of our greatest-ever athletes - and probably the most versatile. 

Hear an extract from 1954 radio documentary, 'Sports Mirror', about the 1954 Commonwealth Games and Yvette Williams's three gold medals

The cult of masculinity had one positive spin-off: Arthur Lydiard. A runner of iron will but limited natural ability, he discovered that as he ran further he got fitter.

Yvette Williams describes winning the longjump (then known as broad jump) at the 1952 Olympics, Helsinki.