By Pauline Murphy
Timothy Carroll was born on July 8th, 1888 in Ballineen, West Cork. Today his name is relatively unknown but in the early years of the 20th century he was famed as an Olympian RIC constable.
Carroll stood at 5ft 7 and sported red hair along with an affable personality. He was known across Ireland as a top rate track and field athlete. In 1912 he represented the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at the Stockholm Olympics.
Of course, those were the pre-independence days and Irish athletes had to compete under the Union Jack at international events such as the Olympics, but Carroll did not let politics get in the way of his sporting passion and if he was to win a medal at international level he was doing so for Cork – not the Crown!
Unfortunately Carroll did not claim a medal at the 1912 Olympics which was most unfortunate when you consider it was the last Olympic games to award athletes with medals made of solid gold! After that, winners were awarded with light gold-plated medals.