January 2, 2026 • 24 mins
Former New Zealand middle and long-distance runner Rod Dixon was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the New Year 2026 Honours for services to athletics.
Dixon is a four-time Olympian, winning the bronze medal in the 1500 metres at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
He won the New York City Marathon in 1983 making him the only athlete in history to have won the New York Marathon and medalled in the Olympic 1500m.
Dixon joined Jason Pine to chat about his introduction into running, the 1972 Munich Olympics, and being recognised in the New Year 2026 Honours.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
One of our greatest middle distance runners, Rod Dixon has
been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of
Merit for services to athletics in the New Year's Honors.
Rod Dixon was an incredibly versatile runner with a competitive
career which spanned nearly two decades across as many many
achievements in numerous disciplines. He won bronze in the fifteen
(00:35):
hundred meters at the nineteen seventy two Munich Olympic Games
and produced a memorable victory in the nineteen eighty three
New York City Marathon, which he won in a New
Zealand record time which lasted for thirty five years. What Dixon,
It's a bross Smith for me over the last prize?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Dixon A tremendous competition here at New.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
York mainteen anythree? What Dixon sprinting holt of the finished?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
What dictus spectacular racing effort? Please get any Part two
five fifty eight of Basilion absolutely iconic. He remains Rod
Dixon the only athlete in history to have meddled in
the Olympic fifteen hundred meters and one the New York
City Marathon. He competed in three Olympic Games, in two
(01:22):
Commonwealth Games, and several cross country World Championships podium finishers
in nineteen seventy three and nineteen eighty two. He then
became involved in many major events as a director, including
the Auckland Round the Bays, the Sovereign Miles Series, and
the Los Angeles Marathon. He founded Kids Marathon Foundation in
(01:43):
nineteen ninety, an educational running and nutrition program that's been
implemented in schools nationally and around the world, impacting more
than one point five million kids worldwide. He's been a
UNISEF Goodwill Ambassador promoting children's rights and welfare on a
global scale, and since two thousand and five has been
(02:05):
patron and in Dellusion Ambassador for Special Olympics, Leukemia Team
in Training and Achilles, New Zealand. He was inducted into
the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety
six and now is an Officer of the New Zealand
Order of Merit. Rod Dixon joins us on Weekend Sport Congratulations.
(02:25):
Rod on this thoroughly deserved New Year's honor, and amongst
everything else that you've achieved, what does recognition of this
type mean for you?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well, it's yeah, it's I guess. I think in my
earlier days wasn't that interested, more focused on running. But
certainly now as we see the impact that the Kids
Running program, Run, Jump, Play, ABC, Agility, Bounced coordination skills
(02:55):
for kids at elementary primary school is really working. And
I'm seeing kids in high school now that will tell
me that they were inspired by the program when they
were in elementary school and now they're playing basketball or
hockey or soccer at college. And that's we know the journey.
(03:16):
We know the journey.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, let's look at your journey. You grew up in Nilsen.
How did you catch the running bug?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, I think my primary school teachers have figured out
that seeing my day. In my day, if you misbehaved,
you had to go out and run around the football field.
And of course the pitcher kept telling my mother, it says,
your son is misbehaving all the time. Every day he's
(03:45):
almost behaving. And she said, well, what do you do?
I send him out for a run. She said, well
he loves that. Why don't you give him a hundred lines,
I will not misbehave. Well, I stopped misbehaving. I didn't
want to be writing one hundred lives. So it was born.
It was my DNA. It was absolutely and I joined
the running club when I was thirteen years old. And
(04:08):
of course just up the road was Harold Nelson, who
was the nineteen forty eight Olympian, nineteen fifty gold and
silver medalists at the British Empire Games, and he was
such an inspiration. George McKenzie, who's the brother of Dave
McKenzie who won the Boston Marathon on ninety sixty seven,
my brother, who was a great runner, it's my hero.
(04:30):
At meeting Sir Edmund Hillary in nineteen sixty at Tonnuis School.
These people just gave me so much inspiration.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Your early success or a lot of it was in
cross country. Were you always driven though to become a
track athlete?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
No, I think it was just you know there again,
you know cross country season track season were different, you know,
winter and summer, and it just meant that I could
run all year round. But I absolutely loved cross country
and my most favorite cross country course was at the
Oaklands Farm in Stoke where they had big hills and
(05:13):
big fences and gates and creeks and swamps, and we
just love going through that.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I guess given your cross country background, when you did
move to the track rod, the more obvious choice would
have been the five thousand meters. So as we look
at your appearance at the Munich Olympic Games, you targeted
the fifteen hundred meters.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Why was that, Well, it was because I was inspired
by Jack Lovelock, nineteen thirty six Olympic gold medalists, Peter Snell,
Murray Hilberg, Bill Bailey, Barry McGee, all these guys who ran,
John Davies, all these incredible athletes back in the sixties.
(05:56):
They inspired us and it was just amazing, and I
wanted to be a miner. I wanted to run the mile.
That was something that was very, very powerful.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Did it feel attainable to you? You had your brother
John as a coach and a mentor. Did Olympic qualification
feel attainable for you?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Oh? No, I don't think so. At the time ninety
sixty eight, with all our mates were listening on the
transistor radio to the fifteen hundred meters, and I said
I'll be there one day, you guys, and they get
have you been drinking? I mean it was like, I mean,
they couldn't, you know, But I said, no, this is
(06:39):
going to be a goal. I'm going to be doing this.
But it was just a dream. It was a dream
and it was spontaneous. But slowly the dots started to connect.
And I think that was when my brother John said,
you know, what do you think And I said, I
want to run the fifteen hundred. I want to run
the mile. He said, well, we're halfway there already.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And so how did it come to be? What sort
of training program, what sort of preparation did you put
in place that saw you run a personal best for Munich.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, I think certainly John, having been coached with George mackenzie,
John figured it out. And of course, in those early days,
the Lydiad used to come to Nelson because he worked
for Rothman's and he used to come to the club
and coach coaches, and of course John was there too,
(07:28):
and he understood the principles and philosophy of the Lydiad
Prince training, and I think all that was started to
come together. The ducks started to connect, and of course
I just was just motivated and inspired to I mean,
I couldn't wait for each day's training. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I want to talk about what happened on the track
in Munich in a moment, but those Olympics overshadowed, of course,
by the terrorist attack resulted in the death of eleven
Israeli hostages a West German police officer. The New Zealand
team were housed very close to the israel team when
all this took place. What do you remember of that
terrible day.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Well, yes, we were right next door, and sometimes when
we would go to breakfast and that we would walk
with the Israeli athletes and talk with them. And that
was what the Olympics is all about, just sharing and
understanding and learning and becoming friends. And of course we
were right next door, and in fact I was in
(08:30):
the room with Dick Taylor and as Terry Manners, who
is the marathonnner, and we heard we heard this banging
and pop pop pop in the night. We sort of
what they were all at about. And then I got
up in the morning and went out onto our little
balcony because our room was right next to the Israels,
(08:52):
and I said, now, there's somebody out there with a
ballet klava and AK forty seven rifle. We couldn't belave.
But within about ten minutes we had a knock on
the door passports, You've got to move out. And that
became the the What was going on with the negotiations
(09:16):
and the terrorists and they said that they had enough
explosives to blow up half the village?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
How how did you handle that? Rod Well? I mean
what I mean, a completely foreign situation to a young
runner from Nelson. How did you deal with what was happening?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Well? Fortunately, we we you know, we all got to
our team and Graham Davy, who was our manager athletics manager,
he got us all over at the assembly point and
he worked with us for emotional and spiritual blessings for
what was going on, and I think we all started
(09:57):
to understand that we had to be part of this
support as best we could. And of course the unfolding
is as you said, the athletes and they were going
to actually they were going to postpone or cancel the games,
and the Israelis said, no, don't you do that. We
(10:17):
live with this every day of our lives. The games
must go on for the spirit and the integrity of
the athletes we have lost, and so we sort of
felt and then we were actually out there running for
the cause to continue with the Olympic movement, that terrorism
wasn't going to stop us believing in ourselves.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Incredible, incredible. Well, let's get to the fifteen hundred meters
in your heat up against the great Kenyon Kepkino, the
USA's Jim Ryan. You're around UPB three minutes forty in
the heat, second alongside Kano who clocked the same time.
I think, how much belief did you run in the
heat give you?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Well know, fortunately with my brother John in those days,
we had to lock in a phone call to New Zealand.
I would lock in a make a reservation for a
phone called every day so that I could talk to
John and tell him what was going on. But he
(11:17):
when he saw that fact that kin, he said, you've
got to stay up with him. He is he runs
the perfect race for you. It's a strength race, not
a speed race. And so I knew then to stay
up as close as I could to the to the leaders,
so that it was more of a even race, rather
(11:38):
than sitting at the back and hoping that I could
run them all down.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You won your semi final and another pebe then the final,
you broke Peter Snell's New Zealand record and winning bronze.
What do you remember most vividly about about the final.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Well, it was incredible to think that, but there again
we knew what Kino was likely to do, and I
stayed as close as I could to that pace, and
going into that last lap, I actually thought that the
other runners would start to go past me, but I
(12:15):
could see that I was third, and then a boy
went past me about two hundred to go and he
actually cut me off, which means I had to step
back and go around him, and I think I lost
that momentum, but certainly coming down the home straight and
I could see Vassal of first kind of second, and
(12:37):
I was third, and I just glanced to them. I left,
nobody was there, and I just couldn't believe it. It
was just a dream. And then of course after when
Ron Polanski, who was the MZPA, he came over and
he says, not only have you got yourself, but you
broke Peter Snow's New Zealand record, and I couldn't believe that.
(12:59):
I thought, oh, my gosh. Really so it was an
incredible moment.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
What's it like to stand on Olympic podium?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I think, I think it's it's I think. You know.
It was interesting because when we when Simond Hillary told
us kids, he said that Mount Everest wasn't high enough
for your goals, your dreams and your aspirations. And here
I was standing on the podium feeling as if I
had found out Everest was said incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
A heartbreaking fourth in the five thousand meter final four
years later in Montreal. How devastated were you to miss
another Olympic podium four years later?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yes, that was that was had. Of course, you know
New Zealand were threatened with the boycott the the African
nations of course boycott because of New Zealand, and we
were told be careful, you are going to be subject
to an attack, and that was walk a Dixon Quacks.
(14:08):
We were the three of us were told we didn't
walk in the opening ceremony because of the potential danger.
And then I haven't told too many people, but I
got third poisoning the night before the race and I
was up all night in the bathroom. So that took
(14:30):
the edge off me.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Goodness, then they step up to the marathon distance road
What was behind that decision?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Well, I of course, then the boycott of nineteen eighty
came around, yes, and so I mean we were we
were in Pennsylvania at the time, heading towards Moscow, and
we were told sorry, you won't be going to the Olympics.
And we looked at one another and said, well, how
do you know? It said, oh, Mouldoon, your Prime minister
(14:59):
has just announced the boycott. And we were already on
our way. So I thought to themselves, no, this is
not an One of the guys said, hey, there's a
road race here in Philadelphia next weekend, and Bill Rogers
the Boston around when Jackie is coming. And I said, oh,
that'd be kind of cool to run a team k
And so what I did, and I ran and I
(15:21):
finished third and of four thousand runners. And it was
the excitement of that and then and the runners and
the people running and walking, and he just was just
overwhelming because I had never been in a race with
that many people, and I just thought I liked this environment.
(15:42):
And I and then the guy Ron set me up
with the Airmstown Beer Festival next week. I said, i'd
better say for that wonderful And in fact, i'll tell
you rayson I the winner got his weight, his body
(16:04):
weight and beer. And so it was unbelievable because just
before they put me on the scouts, a guy said,
I'll put this vest on, and I put the vest
on it and it was a weight vest and they
weighed me and I was about nearly two hundred pounds,
which meant I could I could give beer to all
(16:24):
my friends.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Oh, brilliant, brilliant. And then of course New York nineteen
eighty three on New Zealand record time two of eight
fifty nine. It stood for thirty five years. When you
think back to that day in New York, a damp
day in New York, what stands out the most.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Well, it was I went back. I decided. In eighty
two I ran the Auckland Marathon, which was the Past
of Diamond Past of Marathon in Auckland, and I won that,
and I knew then that I had another good marathon
in me. I had a lot of races I had
committed to, so I knew I wasn't going to run
another marathon in eighty two. But then I set my
(17:04):
goal to run the New York's City Mouth eighty three,
went back and trained and absolutely focused for eighteen nearly
twenty weeks, specifically for the New York City Marathon. So
when I flew out over Lancaster and out of the Philadelphia,
(17:26):
I just knew that this was the moment that I
had done everything I could to be the best prepared
for this marathon. And of course, you know and I had.
In those days, we didn't have any telemetry, so I
had to put my split times on my fingers. And
it was amazing because I set myself a time of
(17:46):
two hours nine minutes to go out, and I was
variation between the various five mile, ten miles, thirteen mile,
eighteen mile, twenty three mile. I was in variation, but
I was so close to running the perfect race, and
yet I was still quarter of a mile to half
a mile behind in the leaders. But just focused on
(18:08):
that and then realizing that I wasn't able to go
to run any faster. They may not be slowing down,
and I started to run the tangents, and of course
when you run the tangents on the road, you actually
saved distance. You're not running faster, you're just saving distance,
and that it relates to time. And of course you
know I had like thirty odd corners to go and
(18:30):
I had two seconds per the corner that I saved.
That was the time that I've made up. And I
caught Jeff Smith, the Englishman, right on the mile twenty six.
So I only led the race for two under and
eighty five yards.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, well that's all. It was the most important two
hundred and eighty five yards. And the scenes when you win,
the arms raised to the heavens, iconic scenes. Rod. I'm
getting goosebumps even saying it was.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
What was that?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
What was that? Like?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Oh? Absolutely, the defining moments. And I thought to myself,
you know, and you know, after ninety seventy two when
I had won the bronze medal, they said I talked
about Servan Hillary coming to our school and inspiring us,
and they said, well you have to call sir, and
I said, oh, I don't think you can call him
because he said Himalayas building schools and hospitals. And they said, well,
(19:26):
hold on, he's the Auckland phone book and it's Hillary
Edmund Percival to eighty a rem you were a road
and the telephone number but I went and knocked on
his door, and I and I and he came, well,
Lady Hillary came to the door and see just a minute,
young man, And of course I was, I said, Satin
and I went to the Olympics last year. And he said, oh, yes,
(19:49):
I don't think he believed me actually, but you said,
but I had my medal with me, and I took
the medal out of my pocket and showed him, and
he said, oh, this is a very fine young man.
He said, were you inspy the next generation? And I
said yes, sir, and so that we that. He gave
me the metal back and closed the door. And I
didn't know what to do then, but certainly, you know,
(20:12):
you call your mother and she says, just hold on
to the goal, let go of the timing. And then
as we started to do the kid's program, the Hillary
Commission or the Hillary Foundation called me and they said, well,
you haven't told she And he said, I said, well,
he didn't tell me to tell him. He just led
me to do it. So of course, then he invited
(20:34):
me for a tea and he became the patron for
our program. And it was just incredible to think that
you know that journey and that inspiration that he gave
us as a country and the world. Actually, well, of
course then would let's not forget Augay Tenzi, who climbed
with And it was just all those moments, and those
(20:57):
moments all flooded in on that finish light at New
York and just realizing that I had to take all
those steps, the disappointment of seventy four con Work Games,
the disappointment of the seventy six Conwork Game, the boycott
of nineteen eighty I mean, all those were moments that
we have to go through in order to get to
(21:18):
our Mount Everest.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
What wonderful perspective. How did you know it was time
to call it a day? Certainly in the elite competitive sense.
She went to a third Olympics in eighty four, I
think your final senior competitive appearance the nineteen eighty eight
World Cross Country Championship. How did you know it was
time to perhaps, you know, to call it a day
(21:39):
in an elite sense.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Well, I got very involved with the City of Los
Angeles Marathon and getting into coaching and training, and I
remember when Mayor Bradley at the eighty four Games, and
I said, why doesn't this city have a marathon like
New York and Boston and London. And he looked at
his people and he said, why don't we and they said, oh,
(22:03):
we've never thought about it. And of course from that
they created the City Los Angeles Marathon. And I was
asked to go and work on it, at which I did.
I loved going, and my thing was was to get leave, no,
to encourage everybody to get off the sofa and go
(22:25):
out for walking and jogging and let's see if you
can run a marathon. And LA that first year was
the highest number of first time runners ever to sign
up for a marathon and the first the highest finishers
of first time runners. So we knew that by training
(22:46):
and coaching the runners, we can get them to achieve
their goals. And it's not about how fast you run.
Finishing is winning. Winning is finishing, and that's the marcher
for our kids.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Just if we talk about the next generation, just quickly,
what have you made of the feats of teenager Sam
Ruth and middle distance running in the last twelve to
eight ten months or so?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh? Absolutely inspiring. Because of the schools that I go to,
the first thing the kids tell me is that what
about fam moves. We want to be like him, so
he is. He's been an incredible inspiration and you know
the Sam Tanners and Jordi Beamish and you know Nick.
It's just been amazing the inspiration that those athletes have
(23:33):
been able to share around the country and kids today
see are very very enthused. And here we had the
spectacle here at Nelson and the highest number of first
time runners running ten k's and five k's and fifty k's.
It's just very very inspiring.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Well, as are you, Rod. It's been energizing chatting to
you as always. Congratulations on your New Year's honor. As
I say, absolutely and thoroughly deserved, and thanks for taking
so much time to have a chat to us today.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Thank you, Jason, and you're here to everybody on the
on the planet.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Everybody on the planet Rod, including you. Thanks mate. Rod Dixon,
now Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for
services to athletics are named so in the New Year's Honors.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News talkst B weekends from midday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
One of our greatest middle distance runners, Rod Dixon has
been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of
Merit for services to athletics in the New Year's Honors.
Rod Dixon was an incredibly versatile runner with a competitive
career which spanned nearly two decades across as many many
achievements in numerous disciplines. He won bronze in the fifteen
(00:35):
hundred meters at the nineteen seventy two Munich Olympic Games
and produced a memorable victory in the nineteen eighty three
New York City Marathon, which he won in a New
Zealand record time which lasted for thirty five years. What Dixon,
It's a bross Smith for me over the last prize?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Dixon A tremendous competition here at New.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
York mainteen anythree? What Dixon sprinting holt of the finished?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
What dictus spectacular racing effort? Please get any Part two
five fifty eight of Basilion absolutely iconic. He remains Rod
Dixon the only athlete in history to have meddled in
the Olympic fifteen hundred meters and one the New York
City Marathon. He competed in three Olympic Games, in two
(01:22):
Commonwealth Games, and several cross country World Championships podium finishers
in nineteen seventy three and nineteen eighty two. He then
became involved in many major events as a director, including
the Auckland Round the Bays, the Sovereign Miles Series, and
the Los Angeles Marathon. He founded Kids Marathon Foundation in
(01:43):
nineteen ninety, an educational running and nutrition program that's been
implemented in schools nationally and around the world, impacting more
than one point five million kids worldwide. He's been a
UNISEF Goodwill Ambassador promoting children's rights and welfare on a
global scale, and since two thousand and five has been
(02:05):
patron and in Dellusion Ambassador for Special Olympics, Leukemia Team
in Training and Achilles, New Zealand. He was inducted into
the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety
six and now is an Officer of the New Zealand
Order of Merit. Rod Dixon joins us on Weekend Sport Congratulations.
(02:25):
Rod on this thoroughly deserved New Year's honor, and amongst
everything else that you've achieved, what does recognition of this
type mean for you?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well, it's yeah, it's I guess. I think in my
earlier days wasn't that interested, more focused on running. But
certainly now as we see the impact that the Kids
Running program, Run, Jump, Play, ABC, Agility, Bounced coordination skills
(02:55):
for kids at elementary primary school is really working. And
I'm seeing kids in high school now that will tell
me that they were inspired by the program when they
were in elementary school and now they're playing basketball or
hockey or soccer at college. And that's we know the journey.
(03:16):
We know the journey.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, let's look at your journey. You grew up in Nilsen.
How did you catch the running bug?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, I think my primary school teachers have figured out
that seeing my day. In my day, if you misbehaved,
you had to go out and run around the football field.
And of course the pitcher kept telling my mother, it says,
your son is misbehaving all the time. Every day he's
(03:45):
almost behaving. And she said, well, what do you do?
I send him out for a run. She said, well
he loves that. Why don't you give him a hundred lines,
I will not misbehave. Well, I stopped misbehaving. I didn't
want to be writing one hundred lives. So it was born.
It was my DNA. It was absolutely and I joined
the running club when I was thirteen years old. And
(04:08):
of course just up the road was Harold Nelson, who
was the nineteen forty eight Olympian, nineteen fifty gold and
silver medalists at the British Empire Games, and he was
such an inspiration. George McKenzie, who's the brother of Dave
McKenzie who won the Boston Marathon on ninety sixty seven,
my brother, who was a great runner, it's my hero.
(04:30):
At meeting Sir Edmund Hillary in nineteen sixty at Tonnuis School.
These people just gave me so much inspiration.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Your early success or a lot of it was in
cross country. Were you always driven though to become a
track athlete?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
No, I think it was just you know there again,
you know cross country season track season were different, you know,
winter and summer, and it just meant that I could
run all year round. But I absolutely loved cross country
and my most favorite cross country course was at the
Oaklands Farm in Stoke where they had big hills and
(05:13):
big fences and gates and creeks and swamps, and we
just love going through that.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I guess given your cross country background, when you did
move to the track rod, the more obvious choice would
have been the five thousand meters. So as we look
at your appearance at the Munich Olympic Games, you targeted
the fifteen hundred meters.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Why was that, Well, it was because I was inspired
by Jack Lovelock, nineteen thirty six Olympic gold medalists, Peter Snell,
Murray Hilberg, Bill Bailey, Barry McGee, all these guys who ran,
John Davies, all these incredible athletes back in the sixties.
(05:56):
They inspired us and it was just amazing, and I
wanted to be a miner. I wanted to run the mile.
That was something that was very, very powerful.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Did it feel attainable to you? You had your brother
John as a coach and a mentor. Did Olympic qualification
feel attainable for you?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Oh? No, I don't think so. At the time ninety
sixty eight, with all our mates were listening on the
transistor radio to the fifteen hundred meters, and I said
I'll be there one day, you guys, and they get
have you been drinking? I mean it was like, I mean,
they couldn't, you know, But I said, no, this is
(06:39):
going to be a goal. I'm going to be doing this.
But it was just a dream. It was a dream
and it was spontaneous. But slowly the dots started to connect.
And I think that was when my brother John said,
you know, what do you think And I said, I
want to run the fifteen hundred. I want to run
the mile. He said, well, we're halfway there already.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And so how did it come to be? What sort
of training program, what sort of preparation did you put
in place that saw you run a personal best for Munich.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, I think certainly John, having been coached with George mackenzie,
John figured it out. And of course, in those early days,
the Lydiad used to come to Nelson because he worked
for Rothman's and he used to come to the club
and coach coaches, and of course John was there too,
(07:28):
and he understood the principles and philosophy of the Lydiad
Prince training, and I think all that was started to
come together. The ducks started to connect, and of course
I just was just motivated and inspired to I mean,
I couldn't wait for each day's training. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I want to talk about what happened on the track
in Munich in a moment, but those Olympics overshadowed, of course,
by the terrorist attack resulted in the death of eleven
Israeli hostages a West German police officer. The New Zealand
team were housed very close to the israel team when
all this took place. What do you remember of that
terrible day.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Well, yes, we were right next door, and sometimes when
we would go to breakfast and that we would walk
with the Israeli athletes and talk with them. And that
was what the Olympics is all about, just sharing and
understanding and learning and becoming friends. And of course we
were right next door, and in fact I was in
(08:30):
the room with Dick Taylor and as Terry Manners, who
is the marathonnner, and we heard we heard this banging
and pop pop pop in the night. We sort of
what they were all at about. And then I got
up in the morning and went out onto our little
balcony because our room was right next to the Israels,
(08:52):
and I said, now, there's somebody out there with a
ballet klava and AK forty seven rifle. We couldn't belave.
But within about ten minutes we had a knock on
the door passports, You've got to move out. And that
became the the What was going on with the negotiations
(09:16):
and the terrorists and they said that they had enough
explosives to blow up half the village?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
How how did you handle that? Rod Well? I mean
what I mean, a completely foreign situation to a young
runner from Nelson. How did you deal with what was happening?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Well? Fortunately, we we you know, we all got to
our team and Graham Davy, who was our manager athletics manager,
he got us all over at the assembly point and
he worked with us for emotional and spiritual blessings for
what was going on, and I think we all started
(09:57):
to understand that we had to be part of this
support as best we could. And of course the unfolding
is as you said, the athletes and they were going
to actually they were going to postpone or cancel the games,
and the Israelis said, no, don't you do that. We
(10:17):
live with this every day of our lives. The games
must go on for the spirit and the integrity of
the athletes we have lost, and so we sort of
felt and then we were actually out there running for
the cause to continue with the Olympic movement, that terrorism
wasn't going to stop us believing in ourselves.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Incredible, incredible. Well, let's get to the fifteen hundred meters
in your heat up against the great Kenyon Kepkino, the
USA's Jim Ryan. You're around UPB three minutes forty in
the heat, second alongside Kano who clocked the same time.
I think, how much belief did you run in the
heat give you?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Well know, fortunately with my brother John in those days,
we had to lock in a phone call to New Zealand.
I would lock in a make a reservation for a
phone called every day so that I could talk to
John and tell him what was going on. But he
(11:17):
when he saw that fact that kin, he said, you've
got to stay up with him. He is he runs
the perfect race for you. It's a strength race, not
a speed race. And so I knew then to stay
up as close as I could to the to the leaders,
so that it was more of a even race, rather
(11:38):
than sitting at the back and hoping that I could
run them all down.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You won your semi final and another pebe then the final,
you broke Peter Snell's New Zealand record and winning bronze.
What do you remember most vividly about about the final.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Well, it was incredible to think that, but there again
we knew what Kino was likely to do, and I
stayed as close as I could to that pace, and
going into that last lap, I actually thought that the
other runners would start to go past me, but I
(12:15):
could see that I was third, and then a boy
went past me about two hundred to go and he
actually cut me off, which means I had to step
back and go around him, and I think I lost
that momentum, but certainly coming down the home straight and
I could see Vassal of first kind of second, and
(12:37):
I was third, and I just glanced to them. I left,
nobody was there, and I just couldn't believe it. It
was just a dream. And then of course after when
Ron Polanski, who was the MZPA, he came over and
he says, not only have you got yourself, but you
broke Peter Snow's New Zealand record, and I couldn't believe that.
(12:59):
I thought, oh, my gosh. Really so it was an
incredible moment.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
What's it like to stand on Olympic podium?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I think, I think it's it's I think. You know.
It was interesting because when we when Simond Hillary told
us kids, he said that Mount Everest wasn't high enough
for your goals, your dreams and your aspirations. And here
I was standing on the podium feeling as if I
had found out Everest was said incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
A heartbreaking fourth in the five thousand meter final four
years later in Montreal. How devastated were you to miss
another Olympic podium four years later?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yes, that was that was had. Of course, you know
New Zealand were threatened with the boycott the the African
nations of course boycott because of New Zealand, and we
were told be careful, you are going to be subject
to an attack, and that was walk a Dixon Quacks.
(14:08):
We were the three of us were told we didn't
walk in the opening ceremony because of the potential danger.
And then I haven't told too many people, but I
got third poisoning the night before the race and I
was up all night in the bathroom. So that took
(14:30):
the edge off me.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Goodness, then they step up to the marathon distance road
What was behind that decision?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Well, I of course, then the boycott of nineteen eighty
came around, yes, and so I mean we were we
were in Pennsylvania at the time, heading towards Moscow, and
we were told sorry, you won't be going to the Olympics.
And we looked at one another and said, well, how
do you know? It said, oh, Mouldoon, your Prime minister
(14:59):
has just announced the boycott. And we were already on
our way. So I thought to themselves, no, this is
not an One of the guys said, hey, there's a
road race here in Philadelphia next weekend, and Bill Rogers
the Boston around when Jackie is coming. And I said, oh,
that'd be kind of cool to run a team k
And so what I did, and I ran and I
(15:21):
finished third and of four thousand runners. And it was
the excitement of that and then and the runners and
the people running and walking, and he just was just
overwhelming because I had never been in a race with
that many people, and I just thought I liked this environment.
(15:42):
And I and then the guy Ron set me up
with the Airmstown Beer Festival next week. I said, i'd
better say for that wonderful And in fact, i'll tell
you rayson I the winner got his weight, his body
(16:04):
weight and beer. And so it was unbelievable because just
before they put me on the scouts, a guy said,
I'll put this vest on, and I put the vest
on it and it was a weight vest and they
weighed me and I was about nearly two hundred pounds,
which meant I could I could give beer to all
(16:24):
my friends.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Oh, brilliant, brilliant. And then of course New York nineteen
eighty three on New Zealand record time two of eight
fifty nine. It stood for thirty five years. When you
think back to that day in New York, a damp
day in New York, what stands out the most.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Well, it was I went back. I decided. In eighty
two I ran the Auckland Marathon, which was the Past
of Diamond Past of Marathon in Auckland, and I won that,
and I knew then that I had another good marathon
in me. I had a lot of races I had
committed to, so I knew I wasn't going to run
another marathon in eighty two. But then I set my
(17:04):
goal to run the New York's City Mouth eighty three,
went back and trained and absolutely focused for eighteen nearly
twenty weeks, specifically for the New York City Marathon. So
when I flew out over Lancaster and out of the Philadelphia,
(17:26):
I just knew that this was the moment that I
had done everything I could to be the best prepared
for this marathon. And of course, you know and I had.
In those days, we didn't have any telemetry, so I
had to put my split times on my fingers. And
it was amazing because I set myself a time of
(17:46):
two hours nine minutes to go out, and I was
variation between the various five mile, ten miles, thirteen mile,
eighteen mile, twenty three mile. I was in variation, but
I was so close to running the perfect race, and
yet I was still quarter of a mile to half
a mile behind in the leaders. But just focused on
(18:08):
that and then realizing that I wasn't able to go
to run any faster. They may not be slowing down,
and I started to run the tangents, and of course
when you run the tangents on the road, you actually
saved distance. You're not running faster, you're just saving distance,
and that it relates to time. And of course you
know I had like thirty odd corners to go and
(18:30):
I had two seconds per the corner that I saved.
That was the time that I've made up. And I
caught Jeff Smith, the Englishman, right on the mile twenty six.
So I only led the race for two under and
eighty five yards.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, well that's all. It was the most important two
hundred and eighty five yards. And the scenes when you win,
the arms raised to the heavens, iconic scenes. Rod. I'm
getting goosebumps even saying it was.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
What was that?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
What was that? Like?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Oh? Absolutely, the defining moments. And I thought to myself,
you know, and you know, after ninety seventy two when
I had won the bronze medal, they said I talked
about Servan Hillary coming to our school and inspiring us,
and they said, well you have to call sir, and
I said, oh, I don't think you can call him
because he said Himalayas building schools and hospitals. And they said, well,
(19:26):
hold on, he's the Auckland phone book and it's Hillary
Edmund Percival to eighty a rem you were a road
and the telephone number but I went and knocked on
his door, and I and I and he came, well,
Lady Hillary came to the door and see just a minute,
young man, And of course I was, I said, Satin
and I went to the Olympics last year. And he said, oh, yes,
(19:49):
I don't think he believed me actually, but you said,
but I had my medal with me, and I took
the medal out of my pocket and showed him, and
he said, oh, this is a very fine young man.
He said, were you inspy the next generation? And I
said yes, sir, and so that we that. He gave
me the metal back and closed the door. And I
didn't know what to do then, but certainly, you know,
(20:12):
you call your mother and she says, just hold on
to the goal, let go of the timing. And then
as we started to do the kid's program, the Hillary
Commission or the Hillary Foundation called me and they said, well,
you haven't told she And he said, I said, well,
he didn't tell me to tell him. He just led
me to do it. So of course, then he invited
(20:34):
me for a tea and he became the patron for
our program. And it was just incredible to think that
you know that journey and that inspiration that he gave
us as a country and the world. Actually, well, of
course then would let's not forget Augay Tenzi, who climbed
with And it was just all those moments, and those
(20:57):
moments all flooded in on that finish light at New
York and just realizing that I had to take all
those steps, the disappointment of seventy four con Work Games,
the disappointment of the seventy six Conwork Game, the boycott
of nineteen eighty I mean, all those were moments that
we have to go through in order to get to
(21:18):
our Mount Everest.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
What wonderful perspective. How did you know it was time
to call it a day? Certainly in the elite competitive sense.
She went to a third Olympics in eighty four, I
think your final senior competitive appearance the nineteen eighty eight
World Cross Country Championship. How did you know it was
time to perhaps, you know, to call it a day
(21:39):
in an elite sense.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Well, I got very involved with the City of Los
Angeles Marathon and getting into coaching and training, and I
remember when Mayor Bradley at the eighty four Games, and
I said, why doesn't this city have a marathon like
New York and Boston and London. And he looked at
his people and he said, why don't we and they said, oh,
(22:03):
we've never thought about it. And of course from that
they created the City Los Angeles Marathon. And I was
asked to go and work on it, at which I did.
I loved going, and my thing was was to get leave, no,
to encourage everybody to get off the sofa and go
(22:25):
out for walking and jogging and let's see if you
can run a marathon. And LA that first year was
the highest number of first time runners ever to sign
up for a marathon and the first the highest finishers
of first time runners. So we knew that by training
(22:46):
and coaching the runners, we can get them to achieve
their goals. And it's not about how fast you run.
Finishing is winning. Winning is finishing, and that's the marcher
for our kids.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Just if we talk about the next generation, just quickly,
what have you made of the feats of teenager Sam
Ruth and middle distance running in the last twelve to
eight ten months or so?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh? Absolutely inspiring. Because of the schools that I go to,
the first thing the kids tell me is that what
about fam moves. We want to be like him, so
he is. He's been an incredible inspiration and you know
the Sam Tanners and Jordi Beamish and you know Nick.
It's just been amazing the inspiration that those athletes have
(23:33):
been able to share around the country and kids today
see are very very enthused. And here we had the
spectacle here at Nelson and the highest number of first
time runners running ten k's and five k's and fifty k's.
It's just very very inspiring.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Well, as are you, Rod. It's been energizing chatting to
you as always. Congratulations on your New Year's honor. As
I say, absolutely and thoroughly deserved, and thanks for taking
so much time to have a chat to us today.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Thank you, Jason, and you're here to everybody on the
on the planet.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Everybody on the planet Rod, including you. Thanks mate. Rod Dixon,
now Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for
services to athletics are named so in the New Year's Honors.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News talkst B weekends from midday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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