The stuff dreams are made of

July 29, 1980: The Moscow Games were overshadowed by the American boycott. Here in Ireland, people concentrated on the efforts of John Tracey and Eamonn Coughlan in the athletic events.

Almost unnoticed, David Wilkins and David Wilkinson won a silver medal for sailing and Hughie Russell a bronze for boxing. That boxing team also included Phil Sutcliffe (round two) and Barry McGuigan (round three). Russell lost his semi-final to eventual gold medallist Lesov of Bulgaria. After the Games, Russell boxed  professionally for four years before retiring as undefeated British Flyweight Champion. Hughie Russell from Belfast won his boxing bronze medal when he defeated Yo Ryon Sik from North Korea on July 29, 1980 – 32 years ago this week.

July 30, 1928: Since the Hammer was introduced as an event, up until 1924 every Olympic gold medal had been won by an Irishman. Amsterdam was different. Again an Irishman won but this time it was as a representative of Ireland. Dr Pat O Callaghan even paid his own way to the Games in Amsterdam.  He became interested in the Hammer as a student and built his own training area at home. He won his first national championship in 1927 and retained it the following year. This allowed him to compete in Amsterdam. The tricolour was raised and Amhrán na bFhiann played at the Olympics for the first time when he won his gold medal at the Hammer on July 30, 1928 – 84 years ago this week.

July 31, 1980: One of the big talking points of the Moscow Games was the age of Ethiopian runner Miruts Yifter. Various guesses put the age of ‘Yifter the Shifter’ at between 33 and 44. He won a bronze at 10,000m in 1972 but turned up late for the 5,000m final. He missed  the 1976 Games but made up for it all in Moscow. He emulated Lasse Viren  by winning both the 5,000m and the 10,000m.  He won his 5,000m gold on July 31, 1980 – 32 years ago this week.

August 1, 1932: We haven’t won many Olympic medals – Jimmy McGee could list them all during John Tracey’s finishing run in the Marathon in Los Angeles but winning two of them on the same day was some achievement and both were gold. Dr Pat O’Callaghan won his second gold medal for the hammer and then cheered on his team mate Bob Tisdall in the 400m hurdles. Just as O’Callaghan was a relative newcomer to the hammer in 1928 so it was with Tisdall and the hurdles. In comparison with the other competitors he was a novice. In spite of that he won his heat and semi-final equalling the Olympic record. When he won the final he clocked 51.67 but the runner-up was given the world record for his time of 51.85. Tisdall knocked the final hurdle and his time would not be ratified. He won his 400m hurdles final on August 1, 1932 -80 years ago this week.

August 2, 1980: Theofilio Stevenson from Cuba must surely rank as one of the greatest amateur boxers of all time. He was practically unbeatable all through the 70s as a Heavyweight. Three successive boxing golds had previously been achieved by Laszlo Papp from Hungary but at different weights. Stevenson won his three gold medals at heavyweight. After Montreal in 1976, he was offered a $1 million contract to turn professional and fight Mohammed Ali. He refused. He won his third successive Heavyweight gold medal when he defeated Zaev from Russia in the final on August 2, 1980 – 32 years ago this week.

August 3, 1952: The 1952 Olympics at Helsinki were notable for a number of reasons. Helsinki had been originally awarded the 1940 Games which were cancelled. It was the first time that the Soviet Union entered a team and their first ever gold medal was won by Nina Romashkova in the women’s discus. Performances were of such a standard that more world records were broken at Helsinki than at any other Games until Beijing in 2008. A highlight must have been the performance of Emil Zatopek from Czechoslovakia who won gold in the 5,000m, 10,000m and then in his first ever Marathon – all in the space of seven days. The closing ceremony for those Helsinki Games took place on August 3, 1952 – 60 years ago this week.  

August 4, 1948: Without a doubt, the golden girl of the 1948 Olympics was 30-year-old Fanny Blankers-Koen from The Netherlands. In 1999 she was voted ‘Female Athlete of the Century’ mainly because of her exploits in London. Many people objected to women even participating in sport and some in Holland said she should stay at home and look after her children. Even the British Athletics manager is reported to have said that she was too old. The Flying Housewife defied them all and won four gold medals on the track in the 80m hurdles, 100m, 200m and 4 X 100m relay. She won her 80m hurdles gold on August 4, 1948 – 64 years ago this week.