Meet the legends of our sport.
Athletics New Zealand has a history that deserves to be valued, preserved, and promoted.
The Legends section of our website is a key part of the process. It makes available informed biographies of our greatest athletes and coaches in a form readily accessible by all. The texts in Legends are freely available for citation, with the courtesy of acknowledgement.
This collection will continue to grow, as we fill gaps and add our more recent outstanding Olympic, Paralympic, and World competitors such as Dame Valerie Adams, Peter Martin and Tom Walsh. Legends is offered here in the belief that the achievements of New Zealand’s past are a living part of its present and its future.
Sir Murray Halberg
Born: 7 July 1933
Discipline: 5,000m, 3-mile
Club: Owairaka Athletic Club
Neville Scott
Born: 25 February 1935
Discipline: 1500m, 5000m, One Mile, Three Mile
Club: Ashburton
Norman Read
Born: 13 August 1931
Discipline: Race walking
Club: Taranaki Race Walking Club
Patricia Hill
Born: 13 August 1948
Discipline: Slalom, Pentathlon, Marathon, 60m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m
Club: North Otago Parafed
Stan Lay
Born: 1906
Discipline: Javelin
Club: Wanganui Taranaki
Sir Peter Snell
Born: 17 December 1938
Discipline: 800m, 1500m
Club: Owairaka Athletics Club
Rod Dixon
Born: 13 July 1950
Discipline: 1500m
Club: Nelson Methodist Harriers, Nelson Amateur Athletics Harrier and Cycling Club
Roy Williams
Born: 9 September 1934
Discipline: Decathlete
Club: Western Suburbs
Valdemar “Valdy” Briedis
Born: 1918
Discipline: Coach
Club: Christchurch Technical
Valerie Young
Born: 10 August 1937
Discipline: Shot Put, Discus
Club: Christchurch Technical Club
World Cross Country Championships Men’s Team
Born:
Discipline: Cross Country
Club:
World Cross Country Championships Women’s Team
Born:
Discipline: Cross Country
Club: