When I met an Irish coffee farmer in the foothills near Tanganyika’s Mount Kilimanjaro over half a century ago, little did I know that he would be feted in Australia as the world’s oldest living Olympian.
This very likeable and enthusiastic man had lived in Ireland as a schoolboy and, after serving in World War 11, had decided to migrate to East Africa with his wife and mother-in-law to become a man on the land.
When Tanganyika achieved Independence some years later, however, he and his family decided to head to the Indian Ocean coastline where they built a small yacht on the beach sands from old, discarded timber materials and anything they could find. Eventually, after an exhausting period of working around the clock, they launched their boat and headed for New Zealand and then Australia.
During their tortuous voyage across the mighty Indian Ocean, they were battered by monsoon weather, dangerous seas and a whale which tried to knock the keel off their vessel, among other hair-raising experiences. Or so I was told with Bob’s great enthusiasm and repartee.
I had often wondered what had happened to my friend after he had left Tanganyika with his wife and very elderly mother-in-law. But one day I happened to be walking down the main street of Nambour on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast when I unexpectedly — and very joyously — walked straight into Bob and his wife.
Now, Bob’s real claim to international fame was not his adventurous sea voyage under extremely difficult conditions to Australasia in his home-made sailing boat. Instead, it was the fact that, as a young man in 1932, he had answered an Irish Government advertisement for a hurdler to take part in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in only a matter of weeks’ time.
After a quick telephone call to the Irish athletic organisation, Bob convinced the authorities that he could hurdle although his only athletic prowess at that time had been as a schoolboy short distance runner of sorts.
As a person who always glowed with enthusiasm for challenges in life, Bob made a series of crudely constructed hurdles, learned the business in a few weeks and happily went off to the United States for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.
In front of 30,000 spectators from all corners of the globe, Bob got to his feet in record time on hearing the starter’s gun and miraculously won his event, hands down. His overall time was a world record against the best hurdling athletes of the decade, but it was at first refused as his one foot had nicked one of his hurdles during the race. This comparative disappointment was, however, later amended when the Athletic Federation changed its rules.
As the world’s crowned champion hurdler of 1932, Bob had the added distinction of winning Ireland’s first ever Olympic gold medal. Not bad for a lad who had never hurdled previously. This fact is still remembered in Ireland to this day by a large monument showing his hurdling prowess.
At the turn of this century, Bob’s great feat so many years before was recognised and honoured by the Australian Olympic organisers inviting him to the Sydney Olympics as the world’s oldest living Olympian. He was then a cheery 93 years of age, and, with the same enthusiasm of his youth, he insisted on running with the Olympic torch in hand before it was finally delivered to Olympic Park. I was very saddened when Bob Tisdall passed on a couple of years later.