Oliver Leonard Kirk (April 20, 1884 – March 14, 1960) was an American

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

and

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

who won two

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

s in

Boxing at the 1904 Summer Olympics At the 1904 Summer Olympics, seven boxing events were contested, with the sport making its Olympic debut. The competitions were held on Wednesday, September 21, 1904 and on Thursday, September 22, 1904. Contestants in lighter weight classes could ...

. He was born in

Beatrice, Nebraska Beatrice () is a city in and the county seat of Gage County, Nebraska, United States. Its population was 12,459 at the 2010 census. Beatrice is located approximately 25 miles south of Lincoln on the Big Blue River and is surrounded by agricultu ...

and died in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. Kirk is the only

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

to ever win two gold medals in two separate

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a Euclidean vector, vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weigh ...

divisions at the same Olympics. He won gold in the

and lost almost 10 pounds in under two weeks and also won gold in the bantamweight category. Kirk only had to win two fights to capture his two gold medals, in the bantamweight class only two boxers competed. In the featherweight class there were three boxers with Kirk earning the bye in the first round.

References

External links

* * 1884 births 1960 deaths Boxers from Nebraska Bantamweight boxers Featherweight boxers Olympic boxers of the United States Boxers at the 1904 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in boxing Place of birth missing People from Beatrice, Nebraska American male boxers Medalists at the 1904 Summer Olympics {{US-boxing-Olympic-medalist-stub