John Pius Boland

John Pius Boland medal table
Tennis player
United Kingdom
Olympic Summer Games
gold	1896 Athens	singles
gold	1896 Athens	Double

John Pius Boland (born September 16, 1870 in Dublin , † March 17, 1958 in Westminster , London ) was an Irish lawyer, politician and the first Olympic tennis champion in Athens in 1896.

Life

John Pius Boland was born in Dublin in 1870, his father ran a large bakery whose products are still known in Ireland today under the brand name Boland's Biscuits . After becoming an orphan at age 12, he was raised by his uncle, an auxiliary bishop in Dublin. Boland went to school in Dublin and Birmingham and studied law in Oxford and Bonn. In 1895/96 he studied at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and became a member of the Catholic student association KDStV Bavaria Bonn in the CV .

Boland traveled from Bonn via Munich, Vienna, Graz, Trieste and Patras as a tourist to the Olympic Games of 1896 in Athens. A Greek named Kasdaglis suggested that Boland take part in the tennis tournament. Boland immediately won in the men's singles and with the German Friedrich Adolf Traun also in the men's doubles. Boland traveled back to England via Bonn and finished his studies in 1898. In 1900 he became a Member of the House of Commons in London for an Irish constituency . He was a committed supporter of Irish independence and rose to Whip in his group of moderate Irish nationalists . In the 1918 election he was defeated by the opposing candidate of the radical Sinn Féin party .

Two of Boland's five daughters achieved national recognition in their respective fields. Honor Crowley became a national political figure and served as Teachta Dála in the Irish House of Commons for 20 years . Bridget Boland was a well-known playwright, writer, and screenwriter.

literature

• Heiner Gillmeister: Olympic tennis. The history of the Olympic tennis tournaments (1896-1992) , Academia Verlag Richarz St. Augustin, 1993
• Heiner Gillmeister: Tennis. A Cultural History , Leicester University Press London / New York 1998, ISBN 0718501950
• Heiner Gillmeister: Once Bonn-Athens and back: The Olympic diary of the Irishman John Pius Boland , in: Stadium. Internationale Zeitschrift für Geschichte des Sport 29 (2003), pp. 95–120.
• Heiner Gillmeister: John Pius Boland: the diary of an olympic champion (Athens 1896) , Luciamedia-Verlag Neunkirchen 2004, ISBN 3-935428-41-3
• Heiner Gillmeister: John Pius Boland: Travel diary of the Olympic champion from 1896 , Luciamedia-Verlag Neunkirchen 2004, ISBN 3-935428-31-6
• Heiner Gillmeister (Ed.): From Bonn to Athens, Single and Return. The Diary of John Pius Boland, Olympic Champion Athens 1896 , St. Augustin: Academia Verlag 2008

Web links

Commons : John Pius Boland  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• John Pius Boland in the database of Olympedia.org (English)
• Boland biography at olympic.org
• Literature by and about John Pius Boland in the catalog of the German National Library