A Whale

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (Wednesday) to an Olympic champion who may have been born on January 28, 1873.

Several sources have this person's birthday as January 9 or January 28. We'll celebrate it today, just in case.

This champion won three Olympic gold medals in three consecutive Olympics. None of those medals came in the hurdles.

Our birthday athlete was 65 at death.

If you know Olympic track and field, you'll know this athlete's name.

[tandfman]

To complicate matters further, at least two of the sources that say he was born on January 28 also say that he was born in 1868, not 1873, and that therefore he was 70 when he died, not 65.

[midwestfan]

It can't be Tommy Curtis, American's first gold medal hurdler in 1896 whose birthday is also on today. Has to be a weight man who can last three Olympics and 12 years. Runners had to work and support families after 4-8 years of athletics

[DoubleRBar]

Weight man it is.

[Trickstat]

The clue suggests to me it might be one of the Irish-American 'Whales' who dominated the hammer in the early 20th Century. Matt McGrath???

[DoubleRBar]

Good guess, but wrong Whale.

[LopenUupunut]

John Flanagan

[DoubleRBar]

John Flanagan it is, LopenUupunut. Nice job. John Flanagan was more than likely born in January sometime in the 1870's. I am going with January 8, 1873. He went on to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the hammer throw (1900, 1904, 1908). Now I realize there was an Olympic Games in Athens in 1906 and I realize those Games were sanctioned by the IOC, however I tend to ignore them since they weren't held four years after the previous Games. Congratulations, LopenUupunut.