{"id":380347,"date":"2026-03-11T23:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/380347\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T23:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:52:07","slug":"ronnie-delany-irelands-olympic-gold-medal-winning-athlete-has-died-aged-91-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/380347\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronnie Delany, Ireland\u2019s Olympic gold medal-winning athlete, has died aged 91 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death has taken place of Ronnie Delany<\/a> at the age of 91, the athlete indelibly associated with his Olympic 1,500 metres triumph in Melbourne in 1956 and a true trailblazer and icon in Irish athletics.<\/p>\n

The Wicklow-born Delany remains Ireland\u2019s last Olympic gold medallist in athletics, and to this day his Melbourne glory ranks among the greatest ever achievements in Irish sporting history.<\/p>\n

Delany turned 91 only last Friday, and died in Dublin on Wednesday afternoon after a short illness. Delany\u2019s gold medal run in Melbourne at age 21 also made him a worldwide athletics star of his time.<\/p>\n

His success on the US collegiate scene with Villanova University also blazed a trail for a generation of Irish athletes who followed in his footsteps, including Eamonn Coghlan and Sonia O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n

Delany often recalled his 1956 success at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in front of 120,000 spectators, with a sense of destiny. \u201cThere was no moment in Melbourne when I didn\u2019t believe I was going to win,\u201d Delany told this newspaper in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at that stage I did feel an element of fate. Once I struck and flew by everyone, I was not going to lose. I don\u2019t do maybes, but it is terrifying to think about my life if I hadn\u2019t won that Olympic gold medal. I can\u2019t actually conceive it.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Happy 90th birthday, Ronnie Delany: from Wicklow\u2019s fields to Olympic goldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"RonnieRonnie Delany winning the 1,500 metres at the Melbourne Olympic Games of 1956 sparked huge interest in the sport at home. Photograph: IOC\/Allsport <\/p>\n

Exactly six months before the 1,500m final in Melbourne, he became only the seventh man in history to crack the four-minute mile, running 3:59.0 in California.<\/p>\n

Paying tribute, Lochlann Walsh, President of the Olympic Federation of Ireland said: \u201cRonnie Delany was one of Ireland\u2019s greatest Olympians and a defining figure in Irish sporting history. His extraordinary victory in Melbourne in 1956 remains one of the most iconic moments in Team Ireland\u2019s history. At this time our thoughts and prayers are with Ronnie\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Sherrard, chief executive of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, added: \u201cRonnie made an immense contribution to Irish sport and to the Olympic movement over many decades. Through his leadership of the Irish Olympians Association and his continued advocacy for athletes, he inspired generations and remained a proud ambassador for Team Ireland throughout his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan expressed his condolences, saying Delany \u201cwas a role model to athletes at home and abroad. Throughout his brief athletic career, Ronnie inspired young Irish runners to follow their dreams. His remarkable victory in Australia marked the first gold medal for Ireland in two decades, since Bob Tisdall and Pat O\u2019Callaghan won gold in 1932 \u2013 and would mark a high point for Irish sport until 1992 in Barcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delany formally retired from top-level competition in the summer of 1961, aged 26, announcing it the same day as his engagement to Joan Riordan.<\/p>\n

Delany went on to work for Aer Lingus and B&I Line, before setting up his own business in sports marketing and consultancy.<\/p>\n

Ar dheis D\u00e9 go raibh a anam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The death has taken place of Ronnie Delany at the age of 91, the athlete indelibly associated with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,9714,174775,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-380347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-olympic-games","22":"tag-ronnie-delany","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116213235260654916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}