New Zealand running legend and disability advocate Sir Murray Halberg (OBM, MBE) died in November, 2022, aged 89.
Back in 1970, he spoke to RNZ about winning an Olympic gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
"I realised very quickly that all I had to beat was 11 very scared men," Halberg told sports reporter Peter Sellers.
Sir Murray Halberg Photo: Supplied
As a schoolboy, Halberg's first sporting love was cricket but it was in running races that his "fair amount of natural speed" made him a standout.
At a certain point, his first coach Bert Payne moved him on to future coaching legend Arthur Lydiard.
"[Payne] recognised that perhaps I had a little more [talent] than what he knew about so he took me along to Arthur Lydiard, who in those days was starting to have his first success with distance running.'
Longer distances were Halberg's forte and after working with Lydiard he competed at the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver and won a gold medal at the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff.
At his first Olympic Games – Melbourne, 1956 – Halberg ran as best he could but found the enormous crowd overwhelming.
"It reminded me of being in the surf and not being able to have control of it… and being overwhelmed by the noise and the occasion. Thoroughly frightening and a situation I couldn't handle."
New Zealand runner Murray Halberg crosses the finish line in the 5,000-metre event at the 1969 Rome Olympics - winning a Gold medal. Photo: New Zealand Olympic Museum Collection
By the 1960 Rome Olympics, Halberg says he had matured.
"I think I had evolved to the stage where I was not prepared to accept defeat – there's quite a difference.
"Two days before, when I'd seen [German runner] Hans Grodotzki running in the heats I thought 'my word, that's a fine-looking athlete and I had a lot of doubt about my ability to beat this man."
On race day, he and fellow New Zealand runner Peter Snell (who also won a gold medal that day) were put in a 10ft x 10ft room for about five minutes.
"When we were in that little holding room I realised very quickly that all I had to beat was 11 very scared men. It was an incredible experience because you couldn't look any one of these fellows in the eye they avoided your eye. I was scared, too. I'll admit that. But when I realised their fears it made it so much easier."
Halberg said he wasn't too disappointed not to qualify for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
"We all have a turn at the top … I'd been at the top, as it were, for four or five years and I think that's a fair innings."
Running performance can't be compared between generations because the sport evolves, he said.
"Of course, [today's athletes] run a lot faster. I think that's the evolution of the sport. The evolution of foot running from this point on is going to have an explosion because all over the world there are so many people running."
Related:
Sports historian Joseph Romanos remembers Murray Halberg (Morning Report)
Dame Susan Devoy remembers Murray Halberg (Morning Report)
Broadcaster Phil Gifford remembers Murray Halberg (Nights)
Murray Halberg talks about heroism (Labour Day)
