Popular Nostalgia

Steve Haywood is a personal trainer from Castleford in West Yorkshire and has been running since age 9. He is a member of Ilkley Harriers and has run with Otley AC & Wakefield Harriers. Visit his website for nutrition, health and fitness tips or join his regular running sessions in Ilkley through Run in England.

During my childhood, during the 1950′s and early 60′s, life was dominated by coal. The village had its own pit, where my dad worked. Pits were everywhere. Our house was very close to a farm, but this farm was different in that it specialised in market garden produce – vegetables mainly, but even flowers when [...]

The first controversy of these games was a geographical one, Mexico City is 2640 metres above sea level, that is almost 11/2 miles. This meant there would be around 30% less oxygen making endurance events more difficult for most athletes, except those who lived at similar altitudes, such as some of the Africans. Most people [...]

My first and lasting memory of Tokyo was the BBC theme tune which I can hum to this day, how sad is that. These games were very eventful for British athletes and the story of Ann Packer is first in my mind. After losing out in the 400 meters to the Australian Betty Cuthbert (Packer [...]

I remember being woken up by my Dad one night in 1968. He shook me awake and said, “I just thought you would like to know that Bob Beaman has leapt over the sandpit”. It was amazing – the world record has since stood for twenty three years. It was such a long jump that [...]

The only other outstanding memory outside of the Olympic athletics was in the boxing stadium with the victory of a young heavyweight – a boxer from the United States called Cassius Clay. We all later knew him as Mohammed Ali. He later lobbed this gold medal into a river in protest against the treatment of [...]

I remember Abebe Bikila winning the 1960 Rome Olympics men’s marathon – barefoot! My image of him is just how slight he was and wondered where the energy came from to do what he was doing. He was the first person to win two Olympic marathons, winning the Tokyo in 1964. In between these two [...]

Al Oerter was an gold medal winning discus thrower from 1956 to 1968. He was among a group of gigantic shot put throwers and discus throwers who were nearly seven feet tall and very impressive to a young boy of seven! Al sadly passed away in 2007. About the Author Steve Haywood is a personal [...]

Herb Elliot never lost a race over 1500m or a mile. He broke the four minute mile on 17 occasions. He took middle distance running to a whole new level. As a young boy watching him compete, I’m sure he fired me up for my future spent running. It wasn’t just his physicality, it was [...]

Came second in the 100m dash (as it was called then!) at the 1960 Rome Olympics. She was a Barnsley lass, which generated a lot of local interest. She became something of a heroine and still has the track and stadium named after her at Cudsworth near Barnsley. About the Author Steve Haywood is a [...]

On a 14″ black and white screen, the Press sisters’ performance in the 1960 Rome Olympics is my first recollection of the games. I remember being a bit baffled because I couldn’t tell the difference between the Press sisters and the men. It later became obvious that they had disappeared about the same time as [...]