Ireland's first ever Olympic medal was won by a famous artist in an unlikely category

The name Yeats is synonymous with the arts in Ireland, but few people know that one of Ireland’s most famous artists was also the very first Olympic medalist for the Irish Free State.

Jack Butler Yeats, brother of WB Yeats, was the very first recipient of an olympic medal. Yeats won a silver medal at the 1924 Olympics, when art was still a category.

Art competitions formed part of the Olympic Games during its early years, from 1912 to 1948. After that, the category was removed from the roster, but not before Yeats had a chance to secure Ireland’s first medal, just three years after the nation was declared a free state.

At the Olympics, all art entered had to be inspired by sport. At this Paris Olympics in 1924, Jack entered with his painting titled the Liffey Swim. He also entered Before the Start which was an oil painting depicting three jockeys before a horse race.

Interestingly, the only other medal that Ireland won in the 1924 Olympics, was also in the arts. Poet Oliver St John Gogarty won a bronze medal in literature for his poem, Ode to the Tailteann Games.

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Like his brother Wiliam, Jack was born in London but was raised in Co Sligo by his maternal grandparents. Both brothers pursued a life in the arts, WB leaning heavily into poetry while Jack was a highly skilled painter. For both, the natural beauty of Sligo was a huge artistic inspiration. Jack once said that every painting had “a thought of Sligo in it.”

Paris is hosting the Olympic Games again this year, 100 years on.

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