Ireland’s first ever Olympic medal was for painting!
We’ve mentioned before how there were a lot of competitions in the Olympics that would seem weird to us now. One of them was an Olympic painting competition. That’s why John Butler Yeats holds the rare honor of being Irelands first ever Olympic medalist, soon after the creation of the Irish Free State.
Yeats was an artist interested in painting, theater and literature. He helped illustrate books for other authors and wrote plays for some theaters. He competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. His painting called The Liffey Swim won a silver medal in the arts and culture segments.