Kiwi running hero Sir Peter Snell is donating his sporting memorabilia to Te Papa, including his Olympic gold medals.
Sir Peter has revealed the decision to TV3's Story programme in an exclusive interview at his home in Dallas, Texas. In the interview, which will be broadcast tonight at 7pm on TV3, Sir Peter talks about the motivation behind his decision, what else he’s giving to Te Papa and why he decided to leave New Zealand more than 40 years ago.
Last month, Te Papa tried to buy Sir Peter’s Olympic singlet for $122,500, but the sale fell through when the singlet turned out to be a fake.
Sir Peter says he was stunned when he heard Te Papa had tried to buy one of his singlets for such a large sum of money - especially because he gave it away for free.
Sir Peter is regarded as one of the best middle-distance runners of all time. He first rose to prominence after winning the 800m at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Then, in 1962, he won two Commonwealth Games gold medals, and in 1964 he won Olympic gold again - this time in the 800m and the 1500m.
Later that year he set world records for both the 1000m and the mile.
He retired from athletics in 1965 and moved to the United States to pursue an education and a career in sports medicine.
The full interview with Sir Peter Snell will be on Story tonight at 7pm on TV3.
Newshub.
