Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-10
OLYMPIAN STAR
AROUSES TUMULT
MARTIN SHERIDAN IS WORLDS
GREATEST ATHLETE
How John Flanagan. Father Of Cham
plon Hammer Thrower, Won Bride
by Tossing Weight on Hills
Of Emerald Isle

when Martin sheridan. the world :
greatest athlete, who gained more in
dividual points IN the Olympic games
than any one contestant appeared in
the games Of the irish American club
AT New York, May 30, he was the
cynosure of all eyes.
Gilbert of Yale had smashed the
worlds record in the pole vault, clear
ing IL feet 2 inches. which is some two
inches or more better than the former
record held by Dole Of Stanford
The spectators were at pitch Of
excitement and the big Oympian pre-
cipitated riot of cheers when he
stepped on the field.
The big fellow limped out, wrapped
up in a capacious dressing gown that
looked like II was made out of sham
rocks. He was modestly trying to give
the crowd the slip, but there was no
escaping the cheers. Some one called
out in fog-horn voice:
There goes Martin Sheridan"
And then the storm broke in earnest.
He refused to come out from among
the shamrocks. but finally acknowl-
edged the ovation he was getting by
dofing the squatty little cap under
which he had been trying to hide.
Fifteen thousand pairs of eyes were
trained on him from the moment he
picked up the discus until he won his
event by throw of 1874 feet six and a
half inches.
This was under his mark at the
Olympian games, when he beat all ma
tions at the discus throw by feet
by about a foot and a half.
Nearly Breaks Record
Once the giant Irishman pitched the
discus, which looked like nice, fat
mince pie with brown crust 145 feet
and for a moment it was thought he
had broken his own record by nearly
ten feet, but the judges decided that
his game leg had slipped out OF
bounds in the throw, and so it was not
allowed. In order to win the event he
had to beat all corners by thirty feet
or more. for that was the handicap inn
posed on him.
Sure 1 could throw the thing clear
over the fence" said Sheridan as he
slipped back into the shamrocks, "if it
wasn't for this game leg
When it came to the throwing of the
sixteen-pound hammer. 1t was a fore
gone conclusion that John Flanagan OF
the Irish Americans would carry off
the trophy. He had a handicap of any
where from twenty to forty feet to
beat off the other competitors. and this
he did easily with a throw of 165 feet
inches. He was entered also in the
shot-put and the discus throw, but in
these events he could not qualify for
the finals.
Threw Discus Over Hill
Flanagan comes from a family of
athletes. His father before him was a
weight -thrower of renown in County
Limerick. His mother. too, came from
athletic stock. Flanagan the elder
in fact won the mother of Flanagan the
younger by pure strength. She was the
daughter of a Limerick woman who
proudly announced that the man WHO
welded the pretty daughter would have
to beat her throwing the 56-pound
weight.
Along came Flanagan the elder for a
try in this event. The old woman took
him up on Klmarnock Hill and then
showed him how easy it was to drop
the weight over on the crest of it's
neighbor-a matter of half a mile ira
dition has 1t. Flanagan bid the old
woman stand where she was and then
he ran over to the top of the other hill,
From there he threw the weight clear
over her head.