Cornelius LEAHY

Con Leahy was one of seven brothers who were all outstanding athletes. Pat Leahy was a silver medalist in the 1900 Olympic high jump, Tim headed the world ranking list in the high jump in 1912, Joe was a 23-foot (7.01) long jumper, but only Con won an Olympic gold medal. The 1906 Olympic high jump began soon after mid-day with the bar set at the absurd height of 1.37 (4-6). It was then raised one centimetre at a time and all competitors were required to clear every height. After three hours the bar was still only at 1.67 m (5-5¾) and the seven competitors who were still in contention then agreed that the bar should be raised in increments of five centimetres. Two hours later only Leahy and the Hungarian Lajos Gönczy remained, and after Leahy cleared 1.775 m (5-9¾) at his first attempt, the Hungarian failed three times and the gold medal went to the Irishman, who had celebrated his 30th birthday the previous day. The Greek official persuaded Leahy to continue jumping with the bar at 6-feet (1.83), but after two failures he declined to make a third attempt. Later in the Games, Leachy finished second to his fellow Irishman Peter O'Connor in the triple jump. He was the Irish high jump champion in 1907-8 and won the AAA high jump title four years in succession, 1905-08. In 1907 he won the high jump at the US Championships, and at the 1908 Olympics he was in a three-way tie for second place in the high jump. In August 1909, Con Leahy and his brother Pat immigrated to America, where they both eventually died.

Personal Bests: HJ – 1.954ex (1908); LJ – 7.21 (23-8) (1902); TJ – 15.06 (49-5) (1902).