John Treacy took marathon silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Prior to his marathon victory Treacy had placed ninth in the 10000m.
Carlos Lopes of Portugal won the race, while Treacy spent much of the race down the field, but always remained in touch with the race leaders.
John Treacy was in second place as they entered the Coliseum and had overtaken Charlie Spedding on Menlo Avenue on the descent to the stadium. Spedding closed the gap on the track, but with about 300m to go, Treacy gave a final kick which secured second place in a time of 2 hours 9 minutes 56 seconds, two seconds ahead of Spedding, who completed the journey in 2:09.58.
The winner Carlos Lopes set a new Olympic record of 2:09.21, while Treacy’s time was the third fastest in Olympic history, at the time.
Treacy is currently chief executive of the Irish Sports Council.
Written by: Tadhg Peavoy
Edited by: Tom Hunt
