The First Champion

Explore The First Champion on Accelerated Viewer — cast, details, and an AI quiz you can generate in minutes.

In 1896 James Brendan Connolly, son of emigrant parents from the Aran Islands won the first athletics* Gold Medal at the Athens Olympics. He also won silver for High Jump and bronze in the Long jump. He later set a world record for the long jump that stood for 13 years. A friend of president Teddy Roosevelt, he developed into a war correspondent and novelist. In his prime he was better known than Rudyard Kipling. This documentary celebrates his life.