Pat McDonald (athlete)

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Pat McDonald athletics

1912 Patrick McDonald.JPG

Full name Patrick Joseph McDonald
nation United StatesUnited States United States
birthday July 29, 1878
place of birth KillardIreland
size 190 cm
Weight 120 kg
date of death May 16, 1954
Place of death new York
Career
discipline Shot put
Best performance 15.34 m
society New York Athletic Club
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
Olympic rings Olympic games
gold Stockholm 1912 Shot put
silver Stockholm 1912 Two-handed shot put
gold Antwerp 1920 Weight throwing

Patrick Joseph "Pat" McDonald (born McDonnell ; born July 29, 1878 in Killard , County Clare , Ireland , † May 16, 1954 in New York ) was an American double Olympic champion of Irish origin, who won in 1920 with his 25 kg - Weight throwing became the oldest Olympic champion in athletics at the age of 42 .

Career

In the shot put of the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912, McDonald was able to defeat the two-time Olympic champion Ralph Rose , with the victory being quite narrow with 15.34 m to 15.25 m. One day after the shot put, the two-handed shot put was on the program, in which the best attempts with each hand were added. Here Rose won with 27.70 m ahead of McDonald with 27.53 m.

After the Olympic Games were canceled in 1916, the next Olympic Games were held in Antwerp in August 1920. In the shot put, McDonald was fourth with 14.08 m. On August 21, 1920, the weight throwing competition was on the program. McDonald won with 11.265 m in front of another Irish native, hammer thrower Pat Ryan , who came to 10.965 m. When he won the Olympics, McDonald was 42 years and 23 days old. This makes him the oldest Olympic champion in athletics.

McDonald, who emigrated to the United States at the beginning of the century, finished second in the shot put at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship behind Rose in 1909 and 1910 . In 1911 and 1912 he won the title. Three times, in 1914, 1919 and 1920, McDonald won both the shot put and weight throw at the AAU championship. McDonald won the last of his 16 AAU titles in 1933 in weight throwing, and here too, McDonald holds the age record.

Pat McDonald was 1.90 m tall and weighed 120 kg.

Name change

The change in his family name is due to the fact that an immigration officer made a typo when his eldest sister immigrated to the United States. The nurse did not dare to correct this mistake because she was afraid that the immigration authorities would attract attention. All family members who emigrated to the USA after her then had to give the same name when they immigrated in order to be admitted as family members.

See also

literature

  • Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle I. Athens 1896 - Berlin 1936. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00715-6 .
  • Bill Mallon & Ian Buchanan : Quest for Gold. New York 1984, ISBN 0-88011-217-4
  • Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Fields Athletics. Berlin 1999 (published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV)

Web links