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** Harold Connolly. Picture from http://www.michtrack.org/past/articles/century/century3.htm **The Olympic Games brings together thousands of young, free and single men and women, so it is hardly surprising that love occasionally upstages sport.

For most athletes a gold medal is their ambition before competition, but for a handful of sportsmen and women a golden ring on the finger has been the enduring result.

The most famous instance of affairs of the heart overshadowing competition came in Melbourne in 1956 in an incident that briefly melted the Iron Curtain.

** 1956. Мельбурн. Михаил Кривоносов (Mikhael Krivonosov) - серебряная медаль в метании молота **American Harold Connolly had already struck gold in the hammer when Czechoslovakian discus thrower Olga Fikotova caught his eye.

She had won gold in her event 24 hours before Connolly's victory, and both met when celebrating their respective victories and were soon walking hand-in-hand in the Olympic village.

At the best of times the Cold War love-match would have been a tricky issue.

But 1956 saw relations between the East and West nose-dive, with the Soviet Union invading Hungary and Britain and France involved in the Suez crisis with Egypt. Diplomatic obstacles were huge, but Connolly turned up in Prague 10 weeks after the Games for an audience with the president.

The president approved the love match and Connolly and Fikatova wed in a civil service attended by 40,000 people, and two separate Catholic and Protestant ceremonies.

The Connollys set up home in Harold's home state of Massachusetts and in 1963 Olga gave birth to a son, Jim, later an accomplished javelin thrower.

Connolly became the first man to throw a hammer over 70 meters, while Fikatova competed in four more Games, including the 1972 Olympics in Munich where she carried the American Flag at the opening ceremony despite her opposition to the Vietnam War.

Sadly, not every love story has a happy ending, and the pair divorced in 1973

27 �� 1957 �� �� . �� . � �� (�� ), �� . �� . �� . �� .

Harold (Hal) Connolly, born on August 01, 1931, Somerville, Massachusetts - an American hammer thrower, and Olga Fikotova, a Czechoslovakian discus thrower, both won gold medals at the Melbourne Games.

If this was not enough to draw attention to them then their romance at the Olympic Village and subsequent marriage after the Games was. The two athletes had met several times during international athletics competitions but it was not until Melbourne that a romance really developed.

Their marriage ceremonies presented cold war era diplomats with plenty of difficulties but finally took place in [March 27] 1957, first in Prague and later in the United States. [April 24, 1957 Olympic winners Harold Connolly and bride Olga Fikotova arrive in U.S. after Czech government approved emigration]. The pair were divorced in 1973

Hal was America's most successful hammer thrower. In addition to winning an Olympic gold medal, he broke the world record six times, adding almost 13 feet to the previous record.

Hal was the first American thrower to break the 200 foot barrier. He raised the American record 12 times, adding almost 38 feet over a 10 year span. Hal also captured nine national championships, breaking the world record for the second time while winning the 1958 title.

Hal was an early supporter of the Relays, capturing the hammer title at the first four editions of the meet. He returned in 1970 to win his fifth Relays championship

** Harold Connolly. Picture was taken from http://www.hammerthrow.com **The 63-year-old Connolly [wrote William Gildea on May 31, 1995], who grew up in Massachusetts, is well suited to work for the Special Olympics. He has demonstrated a will to overcome a handicap. His left arm is four inches shorter than his right, and his left hand is two-thirds the size of his right -- the left arm was damaged badly from a difficult birth.

He has never been able to raise his left arm over his head or straighten out the arm or close his left fist or extend the fingers on his left hand. Since a hammer thrower uses two hands on the triangular handle, he had to overcome a huge disadvantage. He did, representing the U.S. in four Olympics, including the triumph in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia

Connolly and his second wife, Pat [Patricia Daniels-Winslow - three-time Olympian, pentathlon i n 1960, 1964, and 1968 ], are the parents of Adam Connolly, a 1994 graduate of Springbrook High School in Silver Spring who was No. 1 nationally in the hammer throw among high schoolers and who now attends Stanford. Northern California is as much a hotbed as there is for the hammer throw. McMahon came out of a grass-roots field events program in Los Gatos, Calif., directed by Ed Burke, a four-time Olympian in the hammer

YOU MIGHT SAY Adam Connolly was bred to be an Olympian. His father, Harold, won a gold medal in the hammer throw at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. His mother, Pat, competed in three Olympics as a runner and pentathlete. (Pat and Harold met at the 1960 Rome games.) Between them, they have producedseven children -- and all but one have made sports a major part of their lives

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1896. April 06. First Olimpic champion was James Connoly from USA. Первым олимпийским чемпионом современных Игр стал американец Джеймс Конноли (James Connoly), победитель в тройном прыжке �� , ��, �.�� - �� - �� . �� 6 �� 1896 �� 245 �� 14 ��.