Daly, John James (John Joseph) (1880–1969), Olympic athlete, was born 22 February 1880 in Dowriss, Kilmoylan, Co. Galway, one of ten surviving children of Patrick Daly, farmer, originally from Co. Clare, and Sabina Daly (née King). A member of Galway Harriers AC, Daly displayed his abilities as a middle-distance runner of the highest calibre by winning the Irish AAA mile (1.6 km) and four-mile titles and the GAA three-mile title in 1902. The same year he won the mile and four-mile races in the highlight of the year in Irish athletics, the international match against Scotland, winning the mile race by twenty yards (18.3 m) and having six yards to spare in the longer event. The following year (1903) he won the GAA two-mile title as well as retaining his IAAA mile title. Daly consolidated his reputation as a top runner in 1904, winning the IAAA four-mile title, and went to the Olympic Games in St Louis as favourite to win the steeplechase event. Running, as he saw it, as an individual representing Ireland rather than as a member of the official British team, he had to settle for second place. Although he led going into the final lap, he was passed by James Lightbody (US) and lost by ten yards. He did not participate in the mile race, which seems strange in light of the fact that he won a mile handicap race at a meeting held in conjunction with the Olympics, coming off a twenty-yard mark to win in 4:27.4. This may say something about the status of the Olympic Games at this time, however. Later that year he won the Canadian mile and two-mile championships.
His most dramatic Olympic performances were in the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, when he ran in the marathon and the five-mile events. After a couple of miles in the marathon it was clear that his ill-fitting footwear was causing his feet to blister. Despite the pain, Daly was leading at the half-way stage and stayed up with the leaders for eighteen miles before having to retire with hardly any skin left on his feet. His fellow Irish athlete, Peter O'Connor (qv), is quoted as saying: ‘I never in my life saw such a pair of feet on a human. They were in a shocking condition’ (Dooley, 58). This setback was compounded by the fact that earlier in the games Daly had finished third in the five-mile race but had subsequently been relegated to fourth after he was judged to have impeded Edvard Dahl of Sweden. The same Olympics saw the first political protest in Olympic history, when O'Connor, who had come second in the long jump, climbed a flagpole and waved a green ‘Erin go Bragh’ flag in protest at the raising of the union flag at his medal ceremony. Con Leahy (qv), who had won the triple jump, and Daly stood guard at the bottom of the pole. Daly, O'Connor, and Leahy had been sent to the games with Irish money on the strict understanding that they were representing Ireland, not Great Britain. Indeed, O'Connor and Leahy had specifically turned down an invitation from the British AAA to represent them.
Daly put his Olympic disappointments behind him to dominate American distance running in 1907, winning the US five-mile title in September. Within a month he won the US ten-mile title in a US record, finishing a lap ahead of the runner-up. He was entered for four events in the 1908 Olympics but for some unknown reason he failed to compete. By 1909, when he won the New York five-mile title, he was ‘generally supposed to be right on the brink of permanent retirement’ (Sport, 9 Oct. 1909). Nonetheless he continued racing for another few years, and the last major national title he won was the Canadian three-mile title in 1911.
Never a stylish runner, Daly was a big man, standing six feet (1.83 m) tall and weighing 13 st 7 lbs (85.73 kg) at his peak, a physique that would suggest he was more suitable for field events than distance running. Indeed, when he first dabbled in athletics at the age of nineteen, he ran little, concentrating primarily on the high and long jumps. His main strengths were his courage and tenacity, and these qualities often allowed him to triumph over ostensibly superior opponents. Although he was regularly written off by observers and opponents, he always managed to return to form. Despite his limitations, the record times he set show him to be Ireland's finest distance runner of his era. An article on Daly in the New York Globe in October 1909 described him as having ‘one of the greatest distance careers of modern times’ (Sport, 13 Nov. 1909). By 1909 Daly owned and ran a café and bar on Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, and later owned at least five establishments in the city. He remained closely involved with athletics in New York, and was for many years a judge at the US Indoor Championships at Madison Square Gardens. The Connaught Tribune reported him as visiting home in 1958, and as being ‘hale and hearty’ in New York in 1966. He died in New York in March 1969.
Daly was married, with at least one son, who served as a bombardier in the US Army Air Force in the second world war.