- Barry Magee
Arthur Barrington ("Barry") Magee (born
January 6 ,1934 inNew Plymouth, New Zealand ) was aNew Zealand er athlete who mainly competed in themarathon .He competed for New Zealand in the men's marathon at the
1960 Summer Olympics held inRome ,Italy , where he won the bronze medal. Four years later inTokyo he ended up in 23rd place.Magee was one of the large group of athletes that New Zealand coach
Arthur Lydiard used to revolutionise how the world trained for all sports. At the 1960 Olympic Games Lydiard's pupils and Magee's training partners,Murray Halberg andPeter Snell won gold medals over 5000m and 800m within one hour. Magee's bronze in the marathon confirmed Lydiard's training methods.Magee's run in Rome made him the fastest white marathon runner of all time to that moment. He went on to win many major international races, including Japan's prestigious
Fukuoka Marathon . But Magee was much more than a marathon runner; he also ran the world's second fastest times over 3mile and 6mile and was part of New Zealand's 4x1mile world record breaking relay team in 1961.Magee always attributed his success to Lydiard, who had become something of a father figure after Magee's own father died in the same year that Lydiard started coaching him. After retiring from international competition Magee coached several top runners himself.
He is now a proud coach at Auckland City Athletics (ACA) coaching numerous N.Z. Champions
He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Quotes
"“Anyone can run 20 miles. It's the next six that count.”" [http://thinkexist.com/quotes/barry_magee/]
References
* [http://www.olympic.org.nz/Athletes/AthleteProfile.aspx?Print=&ContactID=982&id=3774 Biography at New Zealand Olympic Committee website]
* [http://www.upandrunning.co.nz/ Barry Magee's School of Running]
* [http://www.wesley.org.nz/main/coach.html Tips from Barry Magee]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.