An Irishman was first athlete to win Olympic gold

The first athlete from any country to win an Olympic gold medal was Thomas Francis Kiely (1869-1951) from Ballyneale, near Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary.

He won the all-around event in St Louis on July 4 1904.

As in Paris in 1900 the Olympic games in St Louis four years later were in conjunction with the World’s Fair. The first athletic event was the all-around, which consisted of 10 events. But, unlike the current decathlon, all 10 were on one day, instead of being spread over two days. The events consisted of the 100yds dash, shot putt, high jump, 880yds walk, hammer throw, pole vault, 120yds hurdles, throwing the 56lb weight, long jump, and 1 mile run, in that order.

Kiely, who born in 1869, was a proficient triple jumper and hurdler in his youth, but he became more involved in other events as his speed began to desert him. In the six years from 1897 to 1902 he won the British hammer throw at the British AAA championship every years with the exception of 1900 when John J Flanagan won the events en route to the Paris Olympics.

The different events of the all-around seemed particularly suited to Kiely, even though he was the oldest competitor in the field at little over a month short of his 35th birthday. He paid his own way to St Louis.

There were suggestions that the British offered to pay his fare, but this seems unlikely, because they essentially boycotted the games. They sent no contestants to St Louis, much to the irritation of the Americans.

The New York Irish American Athletic Club offered to defray some of Kiely’s expenses if he joined, as the event was doubling up as the national championship in the United States, but Kiely refused.

Ellery Clark, who won the long jump and the high jump at Athens in 1896, competed in the all-round in 1904. “The day itself was the worst on which I ever competed,” he recalled in his memoirs. “It was hot and sultry, until we had reached the high jump, and then a huge black cloud bore down upon us, and in a twinkling we were caught in the hardest shower I ever saw. We were all thoroughly drenched before we could reach cover, and then stood waiting for an hour or more before we could continue.”