Lovelock

Jack Lovelock won New Zealand’s first Olympic athletics gold medal. He did so in spectacular fashion, winning the 1500 metres at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In front of Hitler and 110,000 spectators, the famous ‘Lovelock kick’ unfurled into NZ’s sporting and collective consciousness: from Timaru to Oxford, to Berlin triumph. Yet Lovelock was an enigmatic achiever. In this short film, the race — the supremely judged apex of a sporting career — is contrasted with his mysterious and tragic death, in front of a train on the New York subway in 1949.

What follows perfection?

– Lovelock's coach Bill Thomas (Alistair Douglas)

Key Cast & Crew

Stuart Hoar

Writer

David Robertson

Director

Bruce Sheridan

Producer, First Assistant Director

Andrew Couling

Glenn Cunningham

Peter Needham

First Official

Wolfgang Leonhardt

Angry Official