Body Pump Pioneer Les Mills Leaves Fitness Empire at 91

91-year-old Les Mills, the New Zealand Olympian whose surname became a global fitness brand through workouts including Body Pump and Body Combat, has died, his family said.

Mills opened his first gym in Auckland with his late wife Colleen in 1968, a local business that later became a nationwide chain and the foundation for Les Mills International, according to BBC World. No cause of death was given in the available reporting.

Les Mills dies at 91 after a life across four Olympics, fitness and Auckland politics

Les Mills dies as one of New Zealand’s more unusual public figures: an elite thrower, a gym founder, a coach, and later mayor of the country’s largest city.

He competed in shot putt and discus at four Olympic Games, and won five Commonwealth Games medals, including discus gold in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966. A Getty Images caption in the BBC report identifies Mills competing at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

His son Phillip Mills, who set up Les Mills International with partner Jackie on the back of his parents’ gyms, said his father “achieved a huge amount in his life”.

“Dad was immensely strong, driven, and always cared deeply for the less advantaged.”

Phillip Mills also said his father’s “spirit lives on in gym workouts around the world, continuing to help people fall in love with fitness”.

That last line captures why the death is more than a sports obituary. Many people know Les Mills first as a class on a gym timetable, not as the man who threw discus for New Zealand or held elected office in Auckland.

From Olympic athlete to the name behind Body Pump and Body Combat

The Les Mills International brand is now best known for choreographed workouts set to music, including Body Pump and Body Combat. The business roots were much smaller: Mills and Colleen opened an Auckland gym in 1968, which later grew into a nationwide chain.

The official Les Mills tribute lists him as Leslie Roy Mills MBE, CNZM, born 1 November 1934 and died 29 June 2026. It describes him as a “founding father of fitness” whose work crossed sport, business, politics and public life.

Mills’ career split across several arenas:

The business significance sits in the conversion of a family gym name into a global fitness identity. The source material does not provide revenue, membership or class-count figures, so the scale should not be overstated with numbers. But the verified arc is clear enough: an Auckland gym brand became internationally associated with music-led group exercise.

That matters because the Les Mills model attached repeatable programming to a named brand. In XOOMAR’s analysis, that is the key commercial insight in the story: Mills’ legacy is not only athletic achievement, but the packaging of gym-floor exercise into recognizable formats that could travel far beyond one facility.

Three public lives made Les Mills more than a fitness founder

Mills moved into local politics in the 1990s and served three terms as mayor of Auckland City, according to the BBC report. He also remained active in sport as a coach, including his work with Beatrice Faumuina, who won the world discus title in 1997.

His honors reflected that mix. Mills was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1973 for services to sport, and a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002 for services to local government and sport.

Nicki Nicol, CEO of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, said Mills had set a benchmark for national representation.

“Les Mills set a standard for what it takes to represent New Zealand at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.”

She added that “his place in New Zealand's Olympic history is firmly established and no doubt his legacy will continue to inspire”.

That tribute points to a useful distinction. The Les Mills name now travels through fitness classes, but his original public reputation was built through national sport. The later brand did not replace the athlete. It amplified him in a different market.

Les Mills International now faces a symbolic succession moment

The immediate operating question for Les Mills International is not who runs the business day to day. The supplied reporting says Phillip Mills and Jackie set up Les Mills International from the base of his parents’ gyms, and does not suggest any operational disruption tied to Les Mills’ death.

The larger issue is symbolic. Founder deaths can force brands to restate what the name means, especially when the founder’s identity spans performance sport, public service and mass-market fitness. Here, the company has a clear story to tell: 1968 Auckland gym, Olympic pedigree, global workouts set to music.

No memorial details were included in the source material. No company plan to honor Mills’ legacy was specified beyond the tribute statements available so far.

For the fitness industry, the watch item is how Les Mills International frames the next phase of a brand whose founder is now historical rather than living presence. Expect attention on official tributes, reactions from the global instructor community, and whether the company links future programming or events back to Mills’ sporting and civic record.

Why It Matters

• Les Mills helped turn a local Auckland gym into the foundation of a global fitness brand.
• His name remains tied to widely used workout programs including Body Pump and Body Combat.
• His career spanned elite sport, business and public life in New Zealand.