Athletics: Hope journals will debunk 'myths'

Jack Lovelock's recently published journals will hopefully debunk some "myths" surrounding him, Alexander Turnbull Library curator David Colquhoun said yesterday.

Colquhoun's new book, As If Running on Air: The Journals of Jack Lovelock, includes Lovelock's journals in their complete form for the first time.

Colquhoun travelled from Wellington to give a seminar on the journals at the Hocken Gallery. The seminar also included rare still photos and archival footage from Lovelock's own collection.

"No other New Zealand sportsman has had so much written about him," Colquhoun said.

"There's a number of reasons for this. He was one of New Zealander's first great sports successes, but he also competed in a time that seems very alien to us now.

"Not just that world of Oxford and Cambridge, but also the Berlin Olympics. Also, there's that strange matter of his death, which is still somewhat unexplained."

Colquhoun said the journals were an important artefact in New Zealand's sporting history.

"The journals are an amazing record of someone who increasingly realises his ability, and sets himself the goal of trying to be the best runner in the world. You see this development from a very carefree person to someone who starts to suffer pressure and burnout as he gets more serious about his career."

Colquhoun said a fascinating portrait of the man emerged.

"[Lovelock] was someone who really enjoyed life, but was also quite intense. He had that distinctive smile, which could charm people, but could also deflect interrogative questions."

However, Colquhoun said many of the speculations surrounding Lovelock's personality were purely fiction.

"We've had plays paint Lovelock as this establishment figure making statements in favour of Hitler, which never happened. He was an apolitical person and pretty conventional, but he never said that.

"James McNeish's novel, Lovelock, creates this episode where Lovelock goes to a gay nightclub in Berlin and witnesses stormtroopers break the place up and he's traumatised.

"But he never went to those places. At the time, he was actually training for the 5000m. He agonised over whether he should compete in the 1500m or the 5000m at the Berlin Olympics before he eventually settled on 1500m."

Colquhoun, a keen runner, will be competing in the national road relay championships in Dunedin this weekend.

He was interested in the way the journals showed how much training has changed over the years.

"These days, training is all about endurance. The top [middle-distance] runners will run more than 100km a week, but back in Lovelock's day, he would only run about 12 to 20km a week.

Lovelock's journals finish shortly after he won his Olympic gold medal, but Colquhoun said that was not surprising as the Berlin Games marked the end of a significant period in his life.

Colquhoun said he hoped the journals could inspire further research about Lovelock.

"What we really need is perhaps another biography on the man. The trouble is that there's already been so much written about Lovelock, but hopefully these journals will act as a corrective to some of the myths surrounding him."