Johnny Hayes

Biography Born in New York City to a family of Irish emigrants (from Nenagh in County Tipperary), Johnny Hayes is probably best known for winning the controversial marathon race at the London Olympics. Hayes is one of only three male American athletes to win the Olympic Marathon, (the other two being Thomas Hicks in 1904 and Frank Shorter in 1972).

In 1905, he joined Bloomingdale Brothers as an assistant to the manager of the sporting goods department. At night, he trained on a cinder track on the roof of the Bloomingdales building in New York. He was promoted to manager of the department after returning from his Olympic victory.

Hayes started his athletics career with a fifth-place finish at the 1906 Boston Marathon, running for the St. Bartholemew Athletic Club in a time of 2:55:38. He improved on that the following year by finishing third in Boston with a time of 2:30:38 and winning the inaugural Yonkers Marathon. In 1908 he finished second, 21 seconds behind Thomas Morrissey in the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:26:04 and thus qualified for the Olympic Games held in London that same year.

The British Olympic Association wanted to start the race in front of Windsor Castle and finish in front of the royal reviewing stand at the White City Stadium. As a result, the distance was 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 km). It took until 1921 for the IAAF to codify that distance as the official length of the marathon. Prior to this, races were usually about 25 miles (40 km). He died in 1965.

1908 Olympic victory

At the race itself, Dorando Pietri from Italy was the first to enter the stadium. But Pietri had depleted himself to open a more than 10 minute lead over the field and was suffering extreme fatigue and dehydration. When he entered the stadium, he took the wrong path, and when umpires redirected him, he fell down for the first time. He got up with their help in front of 75,000 spectators.

Pietri fell four more times, and each time, the umpires helped him up. He managed to finish the race first, with a time of 2h 54min 46s. During all these stumbles and the direct aid from the officials, Hayes had now entered the stadium, finishing the race second, with a time of 2h 55min 18s.

Pietri was disqualified after the US officials filed a protest. Despite the official result, Pietri achieved much more fame than Hayes when Queen Alexandra awarded him a special silver cup.

In 2002, three statues honoring Olympic champions with links to Nenagh, Matt McGrath, Johnny Hayes and Bob Tisdall, were unveiled in front of the Nenagh Courthouse.