Michael Collins

Michael Collins was born in Currans, Farranfore, County Kerry, Ireland. Collins was one of four brothers who all excelled in sports. In the early 1900s Michael Collins went to work in London with the Pearl Life Assurance Company, where he became a member of the Polytechnic Harriers. He placed third in the AAA shot put in 1905 and fourth in 1906. At the 1908 Olympic Games he did not compete in the shot put and failed to qualify for the final of the freestyle discus throw. By 1911 Collins had returned to Ireland where he inherited a farm from his father at Ballindroichead, Currans, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

In 2010 an article in the Irish Times mistakenly attributed this Olympic appearance to the Republican revolutionary leader, and later Irish government minister, of the same name. This is definitely not correct.

Personal Best: SP – 11.35 (37-2¾) (1905).