With the Olympic Games officially getting under way today, we thought we’d look at some of RCSI’s Olympic connections.
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| Pat O'Callaghan (1906-1991, Lic. 1927) |
First and foremost there is RCSI Licentiate Pat O’Callaghan (1906–1991, Lic. 1927). A hammer-thrower, he won Gold at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, the first competitor to do so under the Irish tricolour. ‘I am glad of my victory,’ he later said, ‘not for the victory for myself, but for the fact that the world has been shown that Ireland has a flag, that Ireland has a National Anthem, and, in fact, we have a nationality.’ Four years later, he took home Gold again from the Los Angeles Games.
In 1936, owing to an internal dispute, Ireland did not send a team to Berlin – but O’Callaghan was there nonetheless, personally invited by Adolf Hitler (he was a hammer-throw enthusiast; the winner that year threw two metres short of O’Callaghan’s personal best). In later life O’Callaghan turned down Louis B. Mayer’s invitation for him to play the role of Tarzan in Hollywood; he opted instead for a quiet life in Clonmel. In 1988, he was the recipient of the inaugural RCSI Distinguished Graduate Award. A statue in his honour stands in Banteer, Co. Cork.
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| Portrait of Oliver St John Gogarty by William Orpen (RCSI Art Collection) |
The last time the Games were in Paris was exactly 100 years ago, in 1924. And on that occasion two more RCSI-connected medals were awarded: Oliver St John Gogarty (1878–1957, FRCSI 1910) won Bronze for a poem (until 1948, Art contests were part of the Games); and Arthur Porritt (Hon FRCSI 1964) also won Bronze in the Men’s 100M Sprint – the race that later inspired Chariots of Fire (1981).