John E. Twomey (born March 2, 1923) is an American

track and field athlete Track and field is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of ...

, who competed in the

1951 Pan American Games The 1951 Pan American Games (the I Pan American Games) were held in Buenos Aires, Argentina between February 25 and March 9, 1951. The Pan American Games' origins were at the Games of the X Olympiad in Los Angeles, United States, where official ...

Life and career

Twomey was born on March 2, 1923, and originated from

Roseville, Illinois Roseville is a village in Warren County, Illinois, United States. The population was 989 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical Area. Geography According to the 2010 census, Roseville has a total area of , all ...

. He attended Roseville High School, where he managed the basketball team, before attending the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, where he graduated in 1941. Twomey served in the

U.S. Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, from 1943 to 1945. He worked as a corn farmer, and was a member of the Illinois Athletic Club. Twomey tried out for the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

, but fell just short of being selected. In 1951 Twomey won the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in the

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

event and the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

competition. As of 2014, Twomey was still giving presentations about track and field athletics, at the age of 90.

References

External links

John Twomey profile
at Track and Field Statistics 1923 births Living people American male middle-distance runners American male long-distance runners Pan American Games track and field athletes for the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 1951 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 1951 Pan American Games 20th-century American people {{US-middledistance-athletics-bio-stub