Les Mills

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Leslie ("Les") Roy Mills CNZM, MBE, (born November 1, 1934 in Auckland) is a retired New Zealand athlete, who represented New Zealand at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games over two decades. He competed in Shot Put, Discus and Weightlifting events. At the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, he achieved his best result, a gold medal in Discus.

After retiring from active competition, he became a gym owner in 1968 and a businessman. He has developed a series of group fitness-to-music classes now available internationally, the "Body..." series of classes, BodyStep, BodyCombat, BodyPump, BodyAttack, BodyBalance, BodyJam, BodyVive and RPM.

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[edit] Athletics career

He also has trained New Zealand throwers, such as Beatrice Faumuina.

[edit] Mayor of Auckland

Mills served as the Mayor of Auckland between 1990 and 1998. His Mayoral term commenced after the local body amalgamation which saw many of the district borough councils merged into one larger city. Mills oversaw the merger of these many district boroughs into one city. The Aotea Centre was also opened at the beginning of his term. Other initiatives which commenced on Mills' watch as Mayor included the introduction of the green "wheelie bins", metered user charges for water use, council assets like golf courses were leased to private management, and the city also quit some assets that no longer were of priority, like its abattoir.

Other major events during Mills' tenure included work commencing on the America's Cup Village at the Auckland viaduct, the commencement and opening of the Sky Tower and Casino complex that now dominates the Auckland skyline, the redevelopment of the Civic theatre, and refurbishment of the Auckland Town Hall.

During this period, the 1998 Auckland power crisis occurred, which shut down most of the inner city. Mills' Britomart Transport Centre plans also came under some criticism as being too focused on property development and not enough on transport. His successor Christine Fletcher led plans for a scaled down Britomart Station without the large property development plans.

Mills was defeated in a three way contest between himself, businessman Richard Holden and eventual winner Christine Fletcher in 1998. Mills himself was absent for most of the election campaign, leading the New Zealand at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, and mentoring the gold medal winning discus thrower Beatrice Fauamina.

[edit] Development of group exercise classes

Since retiring from athletics Les Mills has developed a series of pre choreographed fitness-to-music classes. There are eight classes: BodyAttack, BodyBalance (BodyFlow), BodyPump, BodyCombat, BodyJam, BodyStep (LMI Step), BodyVive and RPM (fitness)|RPM. These are updated quarterly with a new release of music and choreography.

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
Catherine Tizard		 Mayor of Auckland
1990-1998		 Succeeded by
Christine Fletcher