Patrick Ryan (hammer thrower)
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Hiberno-English Script error: No such module "infobox".Template:Wikidata imageScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".
Patrick James Ryan (20 January 1883 – 13 February 1964) was an Irish American hammer thrower. He competed for the United States at the 1920 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal in the hammer throw and a silver in the 56-pound weight throw.[1] In 1913 he established the first world record in the hammer throw, which stood as a world record for 25 years and as an American record for 40 years. Ryan was part of Irish weight throwers known as the Irish Whales.[2]
Biography
Born in County Limerick, Ireland, Ryan won his first Irish hammer title in 1902, beating the great Tom Kiely. In 1910 Ryan emigrated to the United States of America. After placing third in the 1911 AAU championship in his first year he improved to take second place in 1912, and won the title in 1913. With the exception of 1918 when he was in Europe with the American Armed Forces he won the AAU title every year from then up to and including 1921, when he retired.[2]
While in New York City Ryan worked as a labour foreman with Consolidated Edison, Incorporated. He was a member of both the Irish American Athletic Club and the New York Athletic Club. He had not established citizenship in time for the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, and so missed an opportunity. The following year, however, at the curiously named Eccentric Fireman’s Games he established the first official IAAF world record for the event with a throw of Template:Cvt. This remained a world record for 25 years[3] and an American record for forty years, being eventually beaten by Martin Engel in July 1953. He came close at the AAU on 26 June with a winning throw of Template:Cvt,[4] but took the record with a throw of Template:Cvt [5] on 11 July 1953.
In 1920, Ryan got his chance at the Olympics and won the title, beating Carl Johan Lind of Sweden by over Template:Cvt. He also took a silver medal in the now-discontinued event of throwing a 56 lb. weight for distance, the only time this event was held at the Olympics. In 1924 he returned to Ireland to take over the family farm and remained there until his death in 1964.[2]
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
External links
Script error: No such module "Navbox". Template:Footer US NC Hammer Men Template:Footer US NC Weight Throw Men Template:Footer USA Track & Field 1920 Summer Olympics Template:Authority control
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Athletes from County Limerick
- Irish male hammer throwers
- American male hammer throwers
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1920 Summer Olympics
- 1881 births
- 1964 deaths
- World record setters in athletics (track and field)
- Male weight throwers
- Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics
- Irish emigrants to the United States
- Olympic weight throwers
- 20th-century American sportsmen