1956 LIMB DIFFERENT OLYMPIAD!

Remembering Harold ‘Hal’ Connolly, Boston College grad, who was the last American to win the Olympic hammer throw gold medal in 1956 By Kevin Paul Dupont (August 10, 2024)

The statue (SEE BELOW) of 1956 Olympic hammer throw gold medalist Harold Connolly, located at the corner of Warren and Cambridge Streets in Brighton.

If you don’t know about Harold “Hal” Connolly, or about his Olympic gold medal, or how his disabled left arm ultimately became his driving motivation, then be sure to visit his statue at the corner of Warren and Cambridge Streets in Brighton.

Connolly’s bronzed likeness, an elegant piece of art sculpted by Pablo Eduardo, depicts Connolly in full, determined, powerful, just as he’s about to heave the hammer into the next galaxy. His muscles bulge in his arms and legs, his neck is stretched and strained. It is a quintessential tableau of force and torture, an Olympian’s ingredients of triumph.

1956 LIMB DIFFERENT OLYMPIAD!

Remembering Harold ‘Hal’ Connolly, Boston College grad, who was the last American to win the Olympic hammer throw gold medal in 1956 By Kevin Paul Dupont (August 10, 2024)

The statue (SEE BELOW) of 1956 Olympic hammer throw gold medalist Harold Connolly, located at the corner of Warren and Cambridge Streets in Brighton.

If you don’t know about Harold “Hal” Connolly, or about his Olympic gold medal, or how his disabled left arm ultimately became his driving motivation, then be sure to visit his statue at the corner of Warren and Cambridge Streets in Brighton.

Connolly’s bronzed likeness, an elegant piece of art sculpted by Pablo Eduardo, depicts Connolly in full, determined, powerful, just as he’s about to heave the hammer into the next galaxy. His muscles bulge in his arms and legs, his neck is stretched and strained. It is a quintessential tableau of force and torture, an Olympian’s ingredients of triumph.

It’s how Connolly, then age 25, looked at the 1956 Games, in Melbourne, Australia, the day (Nov. 24) he became an Olympic champion with a toss of 207 feet, 3 inches. Across the 1950s and ‘60s, Connolly dominated the world stage in hammer throwing for a 10-year stretch, and to this day he is the lone male athlete out of Boston College (Class of ‘53) ever to win Olympic gold.

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