In 1972, athlete Mary Peters was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) by readers of the ‘Radio Times’, beating footballer Gordon Banks and equestrian Richard Meade to the coveted prize after winning the gold medal in the pentathlon at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Accepting the SPOTY trophy from the 1971 winner, Princess Anne, Peters quipped, “Hasn’t she kept in clean?” She went on to say I’m not only pleased for myself, but for Buster [McShane], my coach, for the people of Northern Ireland and for women’s athletics. All you boys and girls who are sitting up late tonight watching, think about doing some sport in the New Year. It’s a great life and a healthy one.”
Peters was born in Halewood, Liverpool on July 6, 1939, but moved to her adopted home in Northern Ireland with her family at the age of 11. She had finished fourth in the pentathlon at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and ninth at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and, at the age of 33, was all too aware that Munich represented her last chance of an Olympic medal.
After the first day of competition, during which Peters finished second in the 100m hurdles before winning the shot put and high jump events, she held a lead of 300 points over her main rival, Heide Rosendahl of West Germany. On the second day, Rosendahl, 26, who had already jumped 6.78m to win the individual gold medal in the long jump, sailed out to 6.83m – just one centimetre shy of the world record – in the first round of the pentathlon long jump competition, thereby accruing 1,082 points. Peters, by contrast, could manage only 5.98 metres, worth 902 points, on her third and final attempt, so went into the final event, the 200m, with a greatly-reduced lead.
Rosenthal won the 200m, too, in a time of 22.96 seconds, with Peters fourth, in a time of 24.08 seconds. After an agonising wait for the times to be displayed, Rosenthal came over to shake her hand and Peters was confirmed as Olympic champion – by just 10 points, or the equivalent of 0.1 seconds in the 200m – with a new world record score of 4,801 points to 4,791.