Doonbeg-born Pat McDonald is seen here competing for the United States in the 1912 Summer Olympics held in Stockholm, Sweden, in the shot put where he won the gold medal.
McDonald also competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, where he won the Gold medal in the 56 lb weight throw in the second and final time this competition was held in the Olympic programme (watch McDonald in action in Belgium here)
McDonald was a member of the Irish American Athletic Club and of the New York City Police Department, working as a traffic cop in Times Square for many years. He was part of a group of Irish-American athletes known as the “Irish Whales.”
Pat McDonald died in 1954 at age 75 and was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York (pictured below).
He was inducted into the US National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2012.
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