‘Greatest Athlete of All Time’ nominee James Kehoe: ‘I still haven’t got my head around it’

One tug of war contest against a Basque team lasted 55 minutes and 17 seconds and prompted a rule change by the sport’s regulators. “People went off to have their lunch and when they came back we were still in the same spot,” Kehoe chuckles

SILVER LINING: James Kehoe has won nine tug of war medals for Ireland at the quadrennial World Games, dozens of podium places in European competition and over a hundred national titles, and has been nominated as World Games’ ‘Greatest Athlete of All Time’. Pictures: Laszlo Geczo

A reporter from Reuters paid James Kehoe a visit in rural Wexford this week. Jennifer Zamparelli had him on her radio show another morning and a photographer from the Inpho sports agency persuaded him into a few pictures too.

None of this is standard.

“I still haven’t got my head around it,” he tells the Irish Examiner.

A 63-year old tillage farmer who does some work in pitch development during the summer, Kehoe has won nine tug of war medals for Ireland at the quadrennial World Games, dozens of podium places in European competition, and over a hundred national titles.

It’s a pile that he has been building since 1975 and, phenomenal as that undoubtedly is, he’s never had to contend with the flurry of interest and fuss that has been coming his way since he was nominated for the World Games’ ‘Greatest Athlete of All Time’.

The Games are a shadow Olympics, a gathering that boasts a collection of sports without a ticket to the five-ringed circus and one that, every now and then, loses a triathlon or a taekwondo to its longer established and flashier sibling.

Others, like tug of war, have made the opposite journey.

On the go since the first edition in Santa Clara 40 years ago, the World Games have bubbled away beneath the radar and among the other nominees for an award to judge its greatest ever exponent are a Russian sumo wrestler, a Mexican racquetball player, and a Swedish Muaythai fighter.

Voting is online and ends on Monday.

As of last night, Kehoe had sailed past the 100,000-mark and was digging in his heels at second. Ahead of him was the Malaysian squash player Nicol David who once spent a frankly ridiculous 108 consecutive weeks ranked number one and has two-and-a-half-times the backing. It looks like silver will have to do this time.

“Sure it’s only a popularity contest,” says Kehoe.

THERE was a time when Ireland was a Christmas tree festooned with a few hundred tug of war clubs but the Boley branch in Ballycullane, a townland parked almost equidistant between Waterford City and Rosslare, is one of maybe 10 or so still clinging on.

Maybe it’s because the roots delve that bit deeper there. Neighbouring Clongeen had a club operating at international standard as far back as the 1960s before Boley lent its weight to the cause with a remarkable run of success at home and abroad.

Kehoe’s brother Bill recalled this week that their first worldwide event was in Cape Town in 1976 when their eyes were opened to the styles and the abilities of other nations. They copped on quickly. By 1980 they were winning a first global title in Basel, Switzerland.

Six Kehoe brothers and two first cousins were involved. That was a great day.

The ‘80s was a stitching line of success, from start through to finish. Some years they returned home with titles or two or, in 1990, even three different weights. James wouldn’t be a keen traveller but 45 years of competition has embraced all manner of experiences.

“I wouldn’t be fond of spending two hours in an airport but there was a time we were brought to South Africa free of charge and we were brought down the gold mines. We went to America for two weeks and saw 10 different states.”

Some staging posts inevitably stand taller on the horizon now that he is being asked to look back.

The medals only give a 2D view of the success Kehoe and Boley have enjoyed. Even the Guinness World record they set for the longest ever pull, a marathon 24 minutes and 45 seconds, pales in comparison to the unofficial mark they set in Holland in 1996.

Holding the other end of the rope was a Basque team renowned for its stamina but the Irish proved their equal and more in a contest that spanned 55 minutes and 17 seconds and one that prompted a rule change by the sport’s regulators to avoid a repeat.

“People went off to have their lunch and when they came back we were still in the same spot,” he chuckles. The real kicker was that they had to go and do it all over again, the second ‘end’ spanning a not-too-shabby 10 minutes that finished with the same result.

Quarter of a century later and here he is, still competing alongside, and against, men who can be half and even a third his age. Four of his nephews are on the current Boley team. That, and the ethos that continues to shape tug of war, is part of what keeps him going.

A non-contact sport, there is no aggro, or “fisticuffs” as he calls it.

Just a culture of respect and a savage work rate. If the Swiss are market leaders in that latter respect — training seven days a week and 11 months of the year — Kehoe is pulling his weight with his two sessions a week.

“He keeps himself in great shape,” says Bill who last competed in 2005.

If the sport looks challenging but straightforward then cohesion doesn’t come easy. Imagine a team of Olympic rowers trying to pull in sync but against an opponent doing everything in its power to knock them off their stride and onto their arses.

He jokes of an intention to give it up 20 years ago but experience clearly counts for something and he wouldn’t be alone in the vicinity in thumbing his nose at time.

Another cousin is a man by the name of Martin Kehoe who, not content with winning three World Ploughing Championships in the ’90s and Ireland’s Strongest Man in the mid-80s, claimed tug of war titles 50 years apart with Clongeen and Boley.

“He was close to 70 when he finished up,” says Kehoe.

Sounds like he’ll be hands-on a while longer himself.