I’m Dame Mary Peters and I won an Olympic Gold Medal in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, in the Pentathlon event. I broke the world record too, and it still stands because they changed the event after mine. Nowadays I’m running a charity which is in my name the Mary Peters Trust which raises money for the next generation of sportsmen and women in Northern Ireland.
Is breaking a record something you become accustomed to?
I’m always very proud when I’m asked about breaking a world record. It is a rarity for a British woman until 2014 to be able to say that - there are so few who have achieved that ultimate accolade in their sporting careers and mine was 43 years ago. Preparing for that event, I had to work full time; I had to travel through a city that was in turmoil with terrorist activity, bombs going off; I didn’t have a running track that was fit for purpose - I used to do most of my training in the University gymnasium! So, having achieved a gold against all the odds back in 1972 , the achievement was very rare.
It was my third Olympics I had attended. I had come fourth in Tokyo in 1964, ninth in Mexico in 1968. I’d won two Gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in 1970 and that gave me a taste for success. And although I was 33 years old at the time, I trained every day with one purpose in mind and that was going to Munich and coming home with a Gold Medal.
I received the most amazing welcome when I returned home to Belfast. I had received a threat to my life that if I came back to Belfast I would be shot and that my flat would be bombed, so there was a great deal of fear from family and friends. My father (who lived with the rest of my family in Australia) had turned up to see me win my medal – I was unaware that he was in the stadium till afterwards, and he definitely wanted me to go with him back to Australia, but I wanted to be in the Belfast I loved and lived. I loved my job and I wanted to come back and share my success with the people here. I’ve no doubt in my mind that it was the right decision to make.
Winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1972 was a surprise. I had never thought about having my name on the trophy until the evening of the event. And when my name was called, I was the first from Northern Ireland to receive that honour. There have been two other people since - Barry McGuigan and AP McCoy - who have won since. It was unusual in those days for a woman to hold the trophy but luckily for me the Princess Royal had won it the previous year so it was she who presented me with the trophy. As I lifted it up, I couldn’t resist saying out loud: “Hasn’t she kept it clean!”
In those days Sports Personality of the Year was voted on by letter and completed forms in the Radio Times. People had to make the effort to fill in a form and nominate you so it was very special that the British people wanted me to be a recipient of it.
Hosting SPOTY in Belfast means a tremendous amount. We have had so much success in sport over the years and my ultimate dream will be to have a museum to celebrate our sporting success, but because people think it’s across the water, it’s a long way away. But, it’s as cheap for people to get to Belfast as it is from London to Glasgow or London to Birmingham.
Sports Personality of the Year is such a huge event for viewers. It gives a greater opportunity for young people to be inspired and to see their stars in real life because I’m sure that lots will turn out to welcome the visitors.