Statement by President Higgins on the death of Jimmy Reardon
Date: Thu 20th Jun, 2019 | 17:05
“It is with sadness that I have learned of the death of Jimmy Reardon, Olympian and sporting pioneer.
Not only was Jimmy Reardon one of 83 Irish representatives at the first post-War Olympics in London in 1948, he was also the first Irish athlete to attend Villanova University on an athletics scholarship, beginning an ‘Irish Pipeline’ of promising athletes that travelled to the United States to develop their talents.
Achieving personal bests that would still be hard to beat today, Jimmy Reardon blazed a trail for Irish athletes, and for that not only atheletes, their families and supporters, but the Irish people owe him a debt of gratitude.
Mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, as President of Ireland, I express my deepest sympathies to his family, friends and former colleagues.”