Simon Gillis

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameSimon Peter•Gillis
Used nameSimon•Gillis
Born6 April 1875 in Inverness, Nova Scotia (CAN)
Died12 January 1964 in Phoenix, Arizona (USA)
Measurements185 cm / 109 kg
AffiliationsNYAC, New York (USA)
NOC United States

Biography

Simon Gillis grew up on Cape Breton Island but moved to New York as a teenager to join his brother. Representing CCNY and the NYAC, he was later runner-up in the 1906 AAU hammer throw. Gillis had one major tragedy in his athletic career when, during a practice in an empty lot on Park Avenue, one of his throws struck a local boy in the head after the boy had run onto the lot to retrieve a ball. The boy died later that day.

Gillis worked in New York as a police officer, but did that for only a few years, before he moved to Spain where he worked as a contractor and engineer. He then returned to New York where he worked for Thomas Edison creating screen titles in silent movies, and even appeared in a few as a policeman. In the 1910s he and his wife moved the family to Phoenix, where they ran a rooming house during the Depression, before Gillis returned to a career in engineering, specializing in building smokestacks for smelting metal.

Personal Best: DT – unknown; HT – 51.89 (170-3) (1908).

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1908 Summer Olympics Athletics USA Simon Gillis
Shot Put, Men (Olympic) DNS
Discus Throw, Men (Olympic) AC
Discus Throw, Greek Style, Men (Olympic) DNS
Hammer Throw, Men (Olympic) 7
Javelin Throw, Freestyle, Men (Olympic) DNS
1912 Summer Olympics Athletics USA Simon Gillis
Hammer Throw, Men (Olympic) NM