James Brendan Connolly facts for kids
Connolly in 1906
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | October 28, 1868 Boston, Massachusetts |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | January 20, 1957 (aged 88) Brookline, Massachusetts |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 8+1/2 in | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 159 lb | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  United States |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
James Brendan Bennet "Jamie" Connolly (born October 28, 1868 – died January 20, 1957) was an American athlete and writer. He made history in 1896 by becoming the very first champion of the modern Olympic Games!
Contents
Early Life and Sports
Jamie Connolly was born in South Boston, Massachusetts. He was one of twelve children. His parents were Irish immigrants. As a kid, Jamie loved to run, jump, and play ball in the streets.
He went to Notre Dame Academy and then grammar school. But he never went to high school. Instead, he worked as a clerk for an insurance company in Boston. Later, he worked for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Savannah, Georgia.
Jamie loved sports. In 1891, he helped start a football team in Savannah. He also became the captain of the Catholic Library Association's Cycling Club. He worked hard to promote cycling in the area.
Jamie wasn't happy with his job path. He wanted to learn more. So, in 1895, he took an entrance exam for Harvard University. He was accepted to study classic subjects there.
Competing in the Olympics
The first modern Olympic Games were planned for April 1896 in Athens, Greece. Jamie decided he wanted to go. He asked Harvard for time off, but they said no.
Jamie later said he told Harvard he was leaving right then. It's not clear if this exact conversation happened. But Harvard records show he asked to leave as a student. This was allowed on March 19, 1896.
Jamie represented the Suffolk Athletic Club. They helped pay for his trip. He traveled to Greece on a German ship with most of the first American Olympic team. In Naples, Italy, he was robbed but managed to get his ticket back. He then took a train and arrived in Athens just in time for the Games.
First Olympic Champion
The first event on the opening day was the triple jump. This event was then called the "hop, skip and jump." Jamie's style was to take two hops with his right foot. This style is not allowed today, but it was fine in 1896.
Jamie jumped 13.71 meters (44 feet 11 3/4 inches). This was more than a meter farther than anyone else! He won the first silver medal. Back then, gold medals didn't exist yet. With this win, he became the first Olympic champion since the year 385 AD.
He also won second place in the high jump (1.65 meters / 5 feet 5 inches). He tied with Robert Garrett. He also took third place in the long jump (5.84 meters / 19 feet 2 inches). When he returned to Boston, people were very excited. The people of South Boston gave him a gold watch.
Jamie also competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. He tried to win the triple jump again but lost to another American, Myer Prinstein.
A TV show called The First Olympics: Athens 1896 was made in 1984. David Caruso played Jamie Connolly in the show. The show incorrectly said that Jamie moved to America from Ireland.
A street in Munich, Germany, is named Connollystraße after him. This street was important during the events at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
A Career as a Writer
Jamie Connolly went to the 1904 Summer Olympics too, but this time as a journalist. Before that, he had written about the Spanish–American War. His stories were published in The Boston Globe as "Letters from the Front in Cuba." He had served in the Irish 9th Infantry of Massachusetts during the war.
Jamie became a well-known writer about the sea. He spent many years on different ships, including fishing boats and military vessels, all over the world. He wrote more than 200 short stories and 25 novels.
He also ran for United States Congress twice. He was part of the Progressive Party, but he was never elected.
Jamie never went back to Harvard as a student. But in 1948, he received an honorary athletic sweater from the university. A year later, Harvard offered him an honorary doctorate degree. He turned it down. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jamie Connolly passed away in New York City when he was 88 years old.
His triple jump silver medal and other items are kept at the library of Colby College in Maine.
Schooner Championship
In 1920, Jamie was part of the winning crew on the schooner Esperanto. This was during the first International Fishing Schooner Championship Races in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He wrote about this experience in Collier's Weekly and in his book The Book of the Gloucester Fishermen.
Novels by Connolly
Some of Jamie Connolly's novels include:
- Out of Gloucester (1902)
- The Deep Sea's Toll (1905)
- The Trawler (1914)
- Running Free (1917)
- The U-Boat Hunters (1918)
Images for kids
-
Connolly in 1906
-
Connolly at the 1896 Olympics
See also
In Spanish: James B. Connolly para niños
