It’s the 1956 Olympic Games, hosted in Melbourne. On the track, setting up to run the 100m, is a lone woman in green. This woman is Maeve Kyle. Kyle, who passed away this July at the remarkable age of 96, was not only an Olympian but the first woman athlete ever to represent Ireland at the Games. Throughout her career, on and off the track, Kyle became a lasting source of inspiration for both female athletes and all women in sport.
Kyle was born and raised in a town in Kilkenny, Ireland, where sport was essential to Kyle’s childhood. Her father was the headmaster of Kilkenny College, which at the time was an all-boys school. Kyle grew up playing a myriad of sports with boys, from rugby to handball to hockey. She lived at the school until age ten, when she moved to Dublin with her grandfather, the provost of Trinity College Dublin. Kyle also attended Trinity herself, studying Natural Sciences.
Hockey was the sport that dominated much of her life, as Kyle went on to represent Leinster, Munster and Ulster, whilst also earning 58 caps for Ireland. Some of her biggest achievements included winning the Triple Crown in Wembley with Ireland in 1950, and being selected to the women’s hockey World All-Star team in both 1953 and 1959. Hockey provided Kyle with the foundation to pursue her goal of going to the Olympics.
On a hockey trip to Antrim in 1953, she met her future husband, Sean Kyle, who also became her athletics coach. They got married less than a year later and had their daughter, Shauna, in 1954. Two years later, Kyle would achieve her dream of competing in the Olympics.
The training that took place over the two years leading up to Melbourne 1956 was not easy. With no access to proper training facilities and the grass being untenable, Kyle was forced to train on the road. Throughout her training, Kyle suffered backlash and abuse. Insults would be shouted by passersby and at times, objects were thrown at her. Despite this hostility, Kyle persevered and continued to train rigorously, allowing her to become one of the 18 people chosen to represent Ireland at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics when she was 28 years old.
In Melbourne, just 376 women competed compared to nearly 3,000 men. Kyle competed in the 100m and 200m, as these were the longest running events available to women at the time. During the Melbourne Olympics Kyle was pregnant with her son, who sadly passed away when he was two and a half months old.
In Tokyo in 1964, there were longer running distances available for women. Kyle competed in the 400m and 800m, her preferred distances, and she made the semi-final in both events. She won a bronze medal in the 400m event at the European Indoor Championships in 1966 in Dortmund, at the age of 37.
As Kyle was progressing in the athletics world, she also emerged as a prominent coach in Irish athletics. In 1955, with her husband Sean, she founded Ballymena and Antrim Athletics Club. This was originally intended to be a women-only club, but eventually expanded to include everyone. She continued to coach after she retired from competition, mentoring athletes well into her eighties. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 Coaching Awards in London. Kyle also advocated for athletics in Ireland in general. This meant everything from petitioning for better facilities to fighting for Northern Irish athletes to gain eligibility in Irish national competitions.
Kyle was also awarded an OBE and the RTÉ Sports Council Hall of Fame Award, both in 2008. She was also placed into the Irish Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006. In addition to being recognised by multiple institutions, Kyle had a profound influence on the future female athletes who would go on to represent Ireland. Katie Taylor, at The Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards, months after winning her Olympic gold in London 2012, said Kyle “opened the door for women in sport.” Despite her passing in July, the marks Kyle left on the track will endure, inspiring many future generations of athletes to come.
