Don't forget superman Larry Stanley, the high-jumping king among footballers 

Larry Stanley was one of the first athletes to wear an Irish vest at an Olympic Games and is widely considered to be the greatest Gaelic footballer of his time. Brendan O’Brien looks into the life of a man almost forgotten but whose remarkable sporting story peaked 100 years ago

OVER THE BAR: Larry Stanley competing in the high jump during the Amateur Athletics Association Championships at Stamford Bridge. He went on to win the event. Photo: Coster/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

There he is in all his glory, suspended in mid-air, leaning back with eyes closed as he clears the bar with all the apparent effort of a man sleeping off a heavy Sunday roast. Larry Stanley is grace personified as the athlete to the right of frame turns his head to join the thousands on the Stamford Bridge terracing in drinking in the moment.

If the ability to make great feats look easy is a measure of sporting greatness then AR Coster’s photo of the Kildare man descending towards the high-jump sand-pit at the British Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) championships this month a hundred years ago is vivid proof of the prodigious heights he managed.