Trinity Olympic Trivia

• Do You Know?

• Garrett Connolly (Sailing Olympian - Atlanta 1996) and Gerard Macken (Bobsleigh Olympian - Albertville 1992) were in the same Moderatorship class in Geology in 1980.

• Marshall King (Sailing Olympian - Atlanta 1996) and the Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, studied Engineering together in College.

• At the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica in 1966, John Coker (Boxing Olympian - Mexico City 1968) had to forfeit his opening bout in the Heavyweight division because the tournament organisers could not supply gloves large enough for his exceptionally long thumbs to allow the gloves to be laced up properly.

• Philip Lawton (Sailing - Beijing 2008), with his sailing partner Gerald Owens, was the first Irish Olympic sailor to win two races in the same Olympic regatta.

• The first two Olympic medals won by Ireland after independence were in the Arts Competitions, all related to sport, at the Games in Paris in 1924 _ Trinity graduate Oliver St John Gogarty, Bronze medal in Literature for the Ode to the Tailteann Games [and Jack B. Yeats, Silver medal in Painting for The Liffey Swim, now in the National Gallery]

• Michael Joseph Bulger was the Chief Medical Officer for the Marathon at the London Olympic Games in 1908 - Bulger was involved in the disqualification of the Italian runner Dorando Pietri for being aided across the finish line and appears in an Italian postage stamp (on the right) issued to mark the 100th anniversary of this moment in Olympic athletic history.

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• Noel Purcell became the first athlete to represent two nation states at an Olympic Games, winning a Gold medal with the Great Britain and Ireland waterpolo team at Antwerp in 1920 and captaining Ireland's waterpolo team in Paris in 1924.

• John B.H. Coker carried the Sierra Leone flag at the Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968.

• Thomas Joseph Maguire, a Trinity staff member, was the coach to the Irish Athletics team at the London Games in 1948

• Dr Robert James Rowlette was the first Irishman appointed as an international technical official by the International Olympic Committee/International Amateur Athletic Federation to officiate at the athletic events at the VIII Olympiad in Paris, 1924 - he was also the Irish Athletics Team manager at the Amsterdam Games in 1928.

• David Robert Wilkins is the only Irish Summer Olympian to compete in 5 Olympic Games (Sailing - Munich, Montreal, Moscow, Seoul, Barcelona).

• Noel Mary Joseph Purcell is the only Irish International Rugby Player (4 caps) to ever win an Olympic Gold medal (Water polo, Antwerp 1920) and is the first athlete to represent two nations at the Olympic Games (GBR, Antwerp 1920 & IRL, Paris 1924).

• Daniel Delany Bulger was one of the 79 delegates who attended the Congress of the Sorbonne in Paris 1894 that lit the flame of the Olympic Games of the Modern Era in Athens in 1896.