athletics

This photograph from Jack Lovelock's albums shows his victory in the 1500-metres at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Behind him are his great rivals, the American Glenn Cunningham, who then held the world mile record, and the Italian Luigi Beccali, who was the 1932 Olympic champion.

Lovelock surprised the field by bursting for home just before the back straight, and no one could match his long sprint to the finish.

A cutting from the New York Sun newspaper, showing Jack Lovelock just after he had broken the world mile record at Princeton University on 15 July 1933, with a time of 4 minutes 7.6 seconds. It is one of many such cuttings in Lovelock's albums relating to this performance - in fact they take up a whole volume.

Jack Lovelock surrounded by wellwishers after his victory over rivals Glen Cunningham and Bill Bonthron in the 'Mile of the Century' at the Princeton Invitational meeting, 15 June 1935.

This Eric Heath cartoon appeared in the Dominion on 2 September 1976, a month after the Montreal Olympics ended. The five Olympic rings have become the high walls of five separate stadiums, labelled 'America', 'Pacific', 'Africa', 'China' and 'Europe'. The cartoon posed the question of whether political disputes would destroy the internationalism of the Games' ideals − a genuine fear at the time, and one that appeared to be confirmed by events in Moscow (1980) and Los Angeles (1984).

Yvette Williams mid-air in a long jump, in an attempt to break her own world record at Carisbrook Park in Dunedin during a visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Photograph taken on the 26 January 1954.

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