Discover the legends of athletics in our monthly feature On the Shoulders of Giants!
Mary Peters
“Come on Mary, you need the run of your life now”
Mary Peters entered the final event of the Pentathlon at the 1972 Munich Olympics just 121 points ahead of pre-games favourite West German Heide Rosendahl. The 200m was one of Rosendahl’s strongest events and the 26 year old took control of the race from the off. Peters needed the race of her life. She had excelled on Day 1 of the pentathlon, scoring big in the high jump, shot put and hurdles but on Day 2 her lead had been cut and victory hung in the balance. As Rosendahl strode to the 200m win, Peters followed across the line in 4th place. Then the excruciating wait for the stadium scoreboard to update….
Mary Peters was born in Liverpool in 1939 but moved to Ballymena, and later Belfast, when her father’s job was relocated to Northern Ireland. Her athletic ability was spotted at an early age, and she soon was being brought in to compete against the boys in her school.
Mary's parents Arthur and Hilda nurtured their daughter's love of sport. Peters was an accomplished runner but her talent lay in field events and particularly in the Shot Put. As the years progressed it became evident that her capacity to excel across so many events meant her real potential was in the pentathlon.
Tragedy struck Mary Peters in her teenage years when her mother died of cancer. Soon after her father remarried, to Peters’ godmother, who had been her mum's bridesmaid. With all this grief and change, sport became Peters obsession; “Athletics was very important to me at that stage because it took me away from the home, where I was finding it very stressful."
Mary Peters competed in her first pentathlon event at the age of 16, finishing 3rd. Her first outing at a major event was the 1958 Commonwealth Games before she became an Olympian in Tokyo (1964). She was guided by Maeve Kyle (Ireland’s first female Olympian) in her early years. Success came in 1970 at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, after a year of intensive training under coach Buster McShane, Peters won Gold in the Pentathlon and Shot Put. She put the significant improvements in her pentathlon performance at the time down to the change from straddle technique to Fosbury Flop in the High Jump.
The Troubles began in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s just as Mary Peters was beginning to find success in Athletics. Years of horrific fighting and the loss of loved ones would deeply impact communities in the region over the next 30+ years. In June 1972 the Provisional Irish Republican Army began a bi-lateral truce (a prelude to secret talks between the IRA and the British government) that had raised hopes of a more peaceful period. However, the truce lasted just two weeks before a summer of violence and deaths ensued. In fact, on the day the Munich Olympics began, the 26th of August, six people were killed in three incidents across Northern Ireland. On her way to compete in Munich Peters was leaving behind a war-torn region, conscious of the negative perception of our home and her people and determined to represent Northern Ireland in a positive light. "I wanted it more than anything ever because Northern Ireland was going through such terrible traumas, and I just hoped that I could bring some good news back to Belfast."
Peters stood at the finish line with her arms around her teammate Ann Wilson waiting for the results. Cameras flashing in her face and a tangible sense of anticipation reverberating around the stadium. Finally the scoreboard clicks into life and alongside Peters name the time 24.08 and realization that Gold is her colour. A victory by 10 points and a new World Record.
Arriving back to Ireland with armed detectives escorting her, the Gold Rolls Royce that was assigned to bring her on her victory parade through Belfast instead whisked her off to safety. An IRA death threat had everyone on edge. The threat had stated that Peters, a Protestant representing Britain, would be shot and her flat bombed. Peters’ father had wanted her to return with him to his new home in Australia, but she was adamant, “My home was in Belfast, my life was there and the people I loved were there.” She was not allowed to return to her flat for 3 months until the threat was deemed to have passed.
Peters knew Munich would be her last Olympics and she took advantage of her success to begin fundraising and advocating for an athletics track for Belfast. By 1976, her dream had been realised and the Mary Peters track was opened at the south end of the Malone Playing Fields in Queen’s University. The success of seeing a high-class athletics facility built for Northern Ireland further motivated Peters. She began work on a charitable trust in 1975, now the Mary Peters Trust, which supports young people to achieve their sporting ambitions. An incredible legacy for the most incredible of athletes.
Tadhg Crowley
31 August 2023