http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/lydiard-arthur.html

Arthur Lydiard (ONZ, OBE) was a New Zealand runner and athletics coach.  He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularizing the sport of jogging.

Lydiard presided over New Zealand's golden era in world track and field during the 1960s, sending Murray Halberg, Peter Snell and Barry Magee to the podium at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.  Under Lydiard's tutelage, Snell went on to double gold at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.  His stable also included other great athletes such as Dick Quax and Dick Tayler.

He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1962 and in 1990 was made an Additional Member of the Order of New Zealand.  He also became a life member of Athletics New Zealand in 2003.

Lydiard passed away on December 11 2004 of a suspected heart attack while on a lecture tour in Texas, USA.

Reference for above: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Lydiard

Lydiard with athletes he coached at the awarding of his Life Membership of Athletics New Zealand

The sight of thousands of people taking off on fun runs and half marathons probably gave the man credited with the invigoration of jogging here as much satisfaction as gold medals around the necks of his Olympic athletes.  Lydiard's philosophy of training everyman had persisted from the beginning.  He refused to restrict his coaching to Olympians only, telling the Herald in 1960: "It is unfair to differentiate.  I like nothing better than training young boys and running with them."

Despite struggling to earn a living while an amateur coach, he was reluctant to move overseas.  In 1961 he said "I would never take money off a young chap for coaching . . . how could you take money off a young man when you see him keen to run and trying all he can in spite of his cynical companions who may waste their time lounging in the streets smoking cigarettes?"

Ironically, just six months later it was cigarette company Rothmans which gave him the job that enabled him to stay in New Zealand, with the flexibility to earn money as well as coach.  Rothmans later produced a booklet of Lydiard's techniques and sponsored a lecture tour.

Lydiard's methods were viewed suspiciously int he beginning.

In 1960, a letter to the editor from the 1958 sectional manager of the NZ Empire Games Team, J. Dickey, noted of the alleged soreness of Lydiard's athletes: "One cannot understand Mr Lydiard's idea that more hard work was the means to overcome soreness in four days, and that after one round of golf, lack of condition could be remedied by another round of golf the next day."

Reference for above: article in the New Zealand herald by Claire Trevett on 14 December 2004 following Arthur Lydiard's death.

Arthur's Coaches Hall of Fame Award was accepted by one of his Olympic medallists, Barry Magee on behalf of Arthur and his family.