For most athletes, taking part in the Olympic Games is a moment they will never forget, a culmination of years of sacrifice etched in their memory forever. But for New Zealand track and field legend Les Mills, the discus qualification rounds at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games are anything but memorable.
Mils (OLY#139), a four-time Olympian and a five-time Commonwealth Games medallist, was born and raised in Auckland where his athletic journey began at the Western Suburbs Running Club. Like many Kiwi kids, he was simply looking for something he could do well. He found it in athletics and tried everything from sprinting to jumping, throwing and decathlon.
"There was no professionalism as such," Mills explains, "for 99% of sports people, no money was involved, so you worked."
This meant balancing a gruelling 50-60 hour work week with his training, his marriage and a young family, Mills conceding ‘sport’ was lucky to make the podium.
“The two things that had to take precedence for me were work and family, sport, much as I loved it, came third.”
Mills recalls being largely self-coached, a man who "enjoyed calling my own shots." Yet, he is quick to credit the "great training mates" and “wonderful friends” who formed the backbone of his athletic community - both members of the New Zealand Team as well as competitors from all corners of the globe.
Mills’ reflections of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games truly allow his humility and sense of humour to shine. He arrived "full of beans and confident," ready for the performance of his life. The city was electric, and he describes the games as brilliantly organised.
Before the discus final, while warming up in a small room, he was bouncing on his toes to stay loose. What happened next is both shocking and comical.
"If you look up there, you'll see a beam," he says, gesturing to his own ceiling. "Imagine that about two meters lower, made of steel. I was right underneath it and hit it full on."
"I can't remember anything else," he states, "till I woke up back in the village." With a splitting headache, his first thought was of the competition. He asked someone what time the final was, worried he was going to miss it. The reply: "Well, you didn't make the final."
After the incident, Mills vowed to “do a bit better in the shot [put]”. He did just that, finishing an impressive seventh in the world or in his humble recollection “not badly”.
Reflecting on his experiences at his “favourite Games” in Tokyo, Mills recalls the strong showing of the New Zealand Team track and field athletes and acknowledges the incident with the beam was probably “the weirdest thing that ever happened to me in sport”.
He remembers a quote from fellow Olympian, Sir Murray Halberg: "never come back from a Games and say, 'if only, if only I'd done this, if only I’d done that.”
For Les Mills, there are no 'if onlys.' He doesn’t regret anything - except, he jokes, “perhaps the steel beam in Tokyo”.
Watch the full video below.