Neil McDonell

Dr. Neil McDonell was the medical officer for the U.S. Olympic shooters in both 1912 and 1920, and he competed in six events in 1912. Individually he did little, and in the running deer event – which he had never shot before – he cost the USA team the gold medal with a very poor performance, but in the smallbore rifle team match he shot very well to help the Americans win a bronze medal.

McDonell studied medicine at the University of Minnesota. During the Spanish-American War he enlisted in the Navy and spent 18 months in the Philippines, before returning to finish his degree. He served as a medical officer at Annapolis and began a 40-year Naval career. He spent many years on board various battleships but in later years was in charge of naval hospitals in Pensacola, San Diego, and Mare Island, California. McDonell was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He retired from the Navy as a Captain and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.