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Jack
Lovelock "COME ON JACK!!" |
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As the
first New Zealand athlete to win an Olympic gold, Jack Lovelock was edge
spirit manifest, an enigmatic achiever whose running style was said to
be 'artistic' in grace. His spectacular 1500m win at the 1936 Berlin
Olympics began a rich history of achievement in New Zealand middle and
long distance athletics, front-running for such later greats as Peter
Snell, Murray Halberg and John Walker.
The spirit of "giving it a go" was a distinctly Kiwi one amongst the cloisters, turf, and class restrictions of Oxford, and Lovelock put himself under huge pressure to succeed. Earlier New Zealand Rhodes scholar and Olympic medallist Arthur Porritt noted that Lovelock was beset by anxiety: "Jack was a great worrier. He ran on nervous energy. Physically he was very fit, but mentally he was very fragile, jumpy even." Over the decade Lovelock would go on to comprehensively prove himself on the track, channeling his nerves as propulsion.
As well as prowess on the track, he was also noted for his élan on the dance-floor. He wrote to his old University of Otago coach A.K. Ibbotson, "Yes, I'm afraid the life over here is very different from N.Z. But oh boy it's a grand life. The next job is the Olympics - only hope I can strike form for I'd like to give it a real go & not make a fool of myself."
Still inexperienced at international level, however, Lovelock only managed seventh place in the 1500 metres final. It was this failure in Los Angeles that convinced him that he was capable of only one great race every season, a realisation that proved to be the turning point of his career. Setting his sights on one race, Lovelock treated all the others as a training runs. Never allowing short term fame or rivalry to get in the way, he began a rigorous programme of self-training, targeting the Olympic 1500m of 1936.
In 1933, Lovelock became the first New
Zealander to achieve a recognised world record, running a 4 minute 7.6
second mile at Princeton, USA, against hometown hero Bill Bonthron.
An entry from his diary describes the event: "That is the sort of race which one really enjoys - to feel at
one's peak on the day when it is necessary, and to be able to produce
the pace at the very finish. It gives a thrill which compensates for
months of training and toiling. But it is the sort of race that one
wants only about once a season."
It was pay-off for Lovelock's 'professional' training routine. His
methods were well ahead of his time, bringing a more scientific and
psychological approach to his sport, for example, maintaining scrupulous
training and nutritional records and using photography to perfect his
'fluid and springy' running style. Lovelock also took great pleasure in
his running. In full release he cruised as effortlessly as a Royal
Albatross:
barely a wing beating, all aerodynamic speed, efficiently gliding along
the southern currents off Tairoa Head. This was the incubation period of
the 'Lovelock kick', the impulsive quality that would prove to be the
fastidious Lovelock's edge.
He became a
star of international middle-distance running in the 1930s, attracting huge
crowds. He established famous rivalries with the other leading milers of
his time, including Bonthron, Glenn Cunningham and their compatriot, the
young rising star, Archie San Romani; Englishmen Jerry Cornes and Sydney
Wooderson, and Italian Luigi Beccali, the 1932 Olympic 1500m gold
medallist. He engaged in a series of high profile transatlantic tussles
and exchanged world records with Cunningham and Bonthron.
A year after the Princeton victory he won the mile at the 1934 Empire Games in London (New Zealand's only gold of the games) in a style described as "melodious prose". In a 1935 race organized by American entrepreneurs, dubbed 'The Mile of the Century', again run at Princeton, Lovelock beat his American rivals. In 1936, in England, he was defeated by Wooderson, (the race where the famous "smiling while he loses" photo of Lovelock was taken. But he dominated the sport in the sense that he had an uncanny knack for winning when it mattered most.
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References:
" Fifty years after the Lovelock victory in the 1500 metres at the 1936 Olympic games a mystique remains; an aura surrounding a small wraith-like figure in black continues to stir the imagination of people who have no other interest in sport." Based on research in five countries, McNeish's "autobiographical" fiction, Lovelock, was first published in 1986 and was republished three times. Learn more about this book at New Zealand Books Ltd.
Tobin, Christopher. Lovelock: New Zealand's Olympic Gold Miler, Dunedin: McIndoe, 1984. Web Sources:
Lovelock takes his place in the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame Athletics New Zealand pay tribute to one of their greatest heroes Read about Lovelock in the Oxford University Athletics Club Hall of Fame The Lovelock Olympic Story on Cool Running Read the entry on the Berlin 1936 1500m final in Runner's World magazine's 'Great Olympic Moments' series (includes a transcript of Lovelock's August 6th 1936 diary entry) Lovelock features in the Otago University exhibition 'A Civilising Mission: New Zealanders and the Rhodes Scholarship' Plot the speed of the mile over time beginning at Lovelock's 1933 world record time Three gold medalists in the same Olympic race - Puke
Ariki take a look at the story Film: "Lovelock" A short film by David Robertson, New Zealand
1993, 15 minutes.
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Aitken | Alda | Alley
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Lovelock's kick was renowned, but lining up at the starter's gun,
all his main rivals had been acknowledged as demonstrating greater
basic speed. After the bell, with 300m to go, Lovelock was crouched in
second place behind Swede Eric Ny. Up to this point the race had
consisted of the usual jostling for position, powerful surges as
runners strove to maintain the heat, cranking tiring muscles, lungs
and heart towards their limits, mentally pressing competitors
to crack first, conscious of maintaing reserves for a final
burst. 
schools, and was generally feted. He then abruptly retired from
running and returned to England to complete his medical studies. In WWII he served in Northern Ireland in the
field of physical medicine and rose to rank of Major. In 1940
he was thrown from a horse during a hunt and lay unconscious for an hour
before being discovered. He sustained a broken arm and leg,
damage to one eye, and was to be troubled by dizzy spells for the rest of his life.
After the war,
with his American wife Cynthia James, he moved to New York, where he was
assistant director of physical medicine at Manhattan Hospital for 
