Past Olympians Join Fraternity

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (Friday) to two Olympic champions who competed in a total of seven Olympic Games and have a total of 244 years since their births.

We shall call these athletes "T" and "J".

Athlete "T" was 64 years old when "J" was born.

One of the two champions died at the age of 75 while the other person died at the age of 70.

"J" won two Olympic gold medals in the same event while "T" won three Olympic gold medals in the same event (but a different event from "J").

Our birthday people were born in different countries, yet represented the same country at the Olympics.

"T" died when "J" was six years old.

I can tell you that these individuals competed in similar events (but no hurdles).

Please name both birthday champions on this final Friday of January.

[Olli]

Parry O'Brien and John Flanagan?

[DoubleRBar]

Parry O'Brien was born in California (Santa Monica) 90 years ago today and John Flanagan was born in Ireland 154 years ago today. Very nice, Olli.

Flanagan moved to the United States at the age of 28. About seven years after moving to New York, Flanagan joined the New York Police Department. He stayed with the NYPD for about seven years.

After making the 1900 U.S. Olympic team, John Flanagan placed seventh in the discus and he won gold in the hammer throw in Paris.

At the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games, Flanagan took silver in the 56 pound weight throw, was fourth in the discus, and again, won gold in the hammer throw.

In his final Olympic Games (London in 1908), John Flanagan was ninth in the discus, got a gold medal in the tug-of-war, and again, won gold in the hammer throw.

He moved back to Ireland and died there in June of 1938 at the age of 70.

Parry O'Brien graduated from Santa Monica High School in Los Angeles County. He went to USC where he was pretty good at the shot put. He was so good that he made four Olympic teams starting with 1952 where he won the gold medal in the shot put in Helsinki, Finland.

O'Brien won gold in the shot put at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Four years later (1960) in Rome, O'Brien took the Olympic silver medal in the shot put and he placed fourth at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic shot put.

Here are his shot put distances and his age at those four Olympic Games. 1952 (age 20) he won at 17.41 (57' 1 1/2"). 1956 (age 24) he won at 18.57 (60' 11 1/4"). 1960 (age 28) he was second at 19.11 (62' 8 1/2"). 1964 (age 32) he was fourth at 19.20 (63' 0").

Parry O'Brien turned to age group (Masters) swimming in his later years and in April of 2007, he died during a freestyle swimming race in Santa Clarita, California. He was 75 years old.

Thank you, Olli.