Maeve Kyle, pioneering Olympian who inspired a generation of Irish women to follow in her footsteps

Belfast Telegraph

7 days ago

Kyle, who died this week at the age of 96, was a coach, administrator and international team manager, as well as a mentor to so many, both on and off the track.
In the seven decades since the 1956 Melbourne Games, many Irish women have donned the green vest on the Olympic stage, but Kyle was the first to do so in athletics, carving a path where none had existed, leaving a trail that so many would follow.
As Athletics Ireland stated in its tribute, Kyle was 'a true pioneer of Irish sport and one of our most iconic and inspirational athletes'.
Born in Kilkenny in 1928, Kyle (nee Shankey) studied at Alexandra College and Trinity College in Dublin but lived most of her adult life in Co Antrim, settling in Ballymena with her husband Sean. In 1955, they founded Ballymena and Antrim ­Athletics Club, where she continued to coach well into her 80s.
Hockey Ireland described her as a 'standout figure' who earned 46 international caps and a place on the World All-Star team in 1953 and 1959. Kyle also competed in tennis, swimming, sailing and cricket, but she was most renowned for her feats on the track.
At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and the 1960 Games in Rome, she raced in the 100m and 200m, while at Tokyo in 1964, she competed in the 400m and 800m. In 1966, Kyle won 400m bronze at the European Indoors in Dortmund.
To truly appreciate her legacy, it's crucial to understand the battle she faced just to make the start line. Ireland was a very different place during her career, with Kyle telling the Irish Independent in 2013 that female athletes were viewed similar 'to how the Taliban view Muslim women'.
Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid had stated that women who sought to compete in the vicinity of men were 'un-Irish and un-Catholic'.
Kyle rebelled against such archaic beliefs, with long-time Irish athletics team manager Patsy McGonagle telling Donegal Live that she 'wasn't afraid of going to war: I remember her going to the door of the Bishop's Palace and tackling [McQuaid], who wouldn't let women take part in ­nationals'.
The Irish star of the Melbourne Games was Ronnie Delany, who won 1500m gold, and he had a lifelong friendship with Kyle, writing the foreword to The Remarkable Kyles, a book about her and Sean.
'I admire Maeve greatly, because of her contribution to sport close on six decades,' Delany wrote. 'Her own achievements are well-chronicled, but what isn't known is the enormous respect people like me hold for Maeve and how we appreciate her in person to this very day. What a wonderful contribution she made to sport.'
Kyle was a life vice-president of Athletics Ireland and president of the Northern Ireland Athletic Federation in an era when female sports administrators were especially rare. As former Athletics Ireland president Liam Hennessy said, she and Sean were 'so incredibly enthusiastic, so articulate and they covered every aspect of the sport'.
Maeve Kyle played a pivotal role in the area during the Troubles. 'She reached out to everybody,' John Stuart, president of Ballymena and Antrim AC, said. 'There were no boundaries whatsoever. The coaches and community in Ballymena will never forget her, and they will ensure her work will be an encouragement to young people in the future.'
At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Kyle shared breakfast with an 18-year-old US boxer, Cassius Clay, four years before he became Muhammad Ali. She described him as a 'lovely guy' and in the decades that followed, she ­developed her own iconic status in her sport, returning to the Olympics in Sydney 2000 as an Irish team coach, passing on lessons she had learned across a lifetime in sport.
Maeve Kyle is predeceased by her husband Sean and is survived by her daughter Shauna.