Who is James Connolly? The story of the first Olympic gold medal

On October 28, 1868, James Connolly, an Irishman who won the very first Olympic gold medal in the world, was born in Boston. Throughout his life, he had to exercise his will and make hard choices to achieve his goals. In 1896, he made history.

Road to the Olympics

James Connolly was born in Boston in a family of large immigrants from Ireland, in which he was one of 12 children. From childhood he was fond of sports, practicing athletics, but the difficult situation of the family did not allow him to devote much time to sports. In 1895, Connolly entered Harvard University, where a year later he made a fateful decision.

Olympic Games in Greece

The university authorities refused to grant Connolly’s student a sabbatical leave, which he requested in order to participate in the first Olympic Games of modern times in Greece. James took a chance and traveled on a cargo ship to Athens. It was this Olympics that proved to be a life-changing experience for Connolly.

James was fond of many sports, but best of all showed himself in athletics, namely in jumping. April 6, 1896, when the first type of the program of the Olympics, the athlete won several medals, including the first Olympic gold. The result shown by James Connolly in the triple jump – 13 meters and 71 centimeters – is very mediocre by today’s standards, but in 1896 the Irishman beat the silver medalist by one meter and one centimeter.

The first Olympic Games were held from April 6 to 15, 1896 in Athens and gathered 241 athletes from 14 countries. Women were not admitted to these competitions. A total of 43 sets of medals in 9 sports were played.

Many sources say that in addition to the gold medal in the triple jump Connolly won silver in the long jump and bronze in the high jump, but this is not quite true. At the first Games, only two winners were awarded, not three, as they began to do later. The champion received a silver medal covered with six grams of gold, the second place winner received a bronze medal. The third place was not marked in any way, so formally the athlete took away from Athens only two awards.

When the champion returned to his homeland, the university authorities certainly reinstated him as a student.

Life after Olympic gold

In 1900, Connolly again took part in the Olympics, which was held in Paris. In the triple jump, he improved his previous Olympic achievement by 26 centimeters, showing already 13 meters 97 centimeters, but the athlete failed to repeat his success, losing the title of champion to another American – Meyer Prinstein.

This was the last serious competition in which James successfully proved himself. After completing his sports career, he graduated from university, then tried himself in different professions, most of all succeeding in journalism and literature. The level of his writing skills is evidenced by the fact that Harvard University awarded James Connolly a doctorate for his literary works in 1949.

The first Olympic champion lived a long life and died on January 20, 1957 at the age of 88. In memory of the athlete, a sculpture depicting Connolly landing after the jump that made him an all-time champion was erected in a Boston park.