From local government leadership and sporting excellence to dedication to education and rescue efforts, five Nelson locals have been recognised in this year’s New Year Honours. Today, we are bringing you their stories.
Five decades after turning down an imperial honour, Rodney Dixon has accepted a New Zealand accolade that reflects both his athletic achievements and his commitment to inspiring young people.
Five decades after turning down an imperial honour, Rodney Dixon has accepted a New Zealand accolade that reflects both his athletic achievements and his commitment to inspiring young people.
In the 1970s, fresh from winning bronze in the 1500m at the Munich Olympics, Rod was offered the chance to become a Member of the British Empire. No thanks, the Nelson-born runner told then prime minister Bill Rowling.
He saw an MBE as a rather irrelevant honour for a proud Kiwi. When Bill suggested an Officer of the British Empire instead, Rod quipped, “That’s even worse! OBE – other buggers’ efforts!”
New Zealand has since established its own honours system to replace the imperial one, and this December an official-looking envelope appeared in Rod’s Upper Moutere letterbox, confirming his appointment as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to athletics.
This accolade encompasses not only his personal achievements in athletics and long-distance running, but also his work promoting physical activity, health and wellness for young people.
After his bronze-medal debut at 21 years old, Rod competed in three other Olympic Games, finishing in the top 10 each time. He was also a fierce competitor in the Commonwealth Games and the World Cross Country Championships through the 1970s and 1980s and secured an astonishing victory in the 1983 New York Marathon – the largest city marathon in the world.
In 1990, Rod founded the KiDSMARATHON Foundation, an educational running and nutrition programme that has been implemented in New Zealand and internationally. The charity aims to get kids – especially those in disadvantaged communities - up and moving.
“Kids were not born to sit down and keep quiet,” he insists.
He knows this firsthand. As a child who struggled in the classroom, he thrived when given laps of the sports field.
“We didn’t realise what ADHD was in those days, but what the teacher did realise was that I just had to be moving.”
Rod was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. From 1988 to 2000 he served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, promoting child rights and welfare on a global scale, and since 2005 has been patron and inclusion ambassador for Special Olympics, Achilles New Zealand and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training.
“It’s been an incredible journey, really.”
His journey has brought him into contact with global leaders and celebrities – from meeting President Reagan at the White House to collaborating with Jamie Oliver on school lunches and Michelle Obama on equitable sports access.
He even had occasion to politely berate Arnold Schwarzenegger for cycling through a group of Los Angeles runners.
Despite those connections, his hero has always been his older brother John, who trained alongside him and coached him in his early career. Sir Edmund Hillary is his inspiration, and Rod recalls working up the courage in 1973 to door-knock the famous mountaineer, explaining in quaking tones that he had won a medal for New Zealand at the Olympics. Sir Edmund congratulated him – “This is very fine, young Rodney” – and asked him to promise to inspire the next generation; a promise Rod has kept.
Setbacks such as a stolen gear bag at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, the 1980 Olympic boycott and a series of heartbreaking fourth-place finishes all served to refine his perseverance. “I always remember Sir Edmund Hillary saying, ‘One step at a time,’ and my grandmother always said, ‘Learn by doing’.”
Rod says some of the greatest lessons come from children themselves.
“You’ve just got to slow down and listen to the kids, because they’ve got it figured out.”
These days, Rod favours cycling for quicker recovery but still enjoys running along Rabbit Island’s beaches or under forest canopies. Lower Moutere’s Memorial Reserve, where his grandparents once took him to play, remains a favourite spot.
In his own words, he was “just born to run”.
