Robert Morton Newburgh Tisdall (16 May 1907 in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon – 27 July 2004 in Nambour, Queensland, Australia) was an Irish athlete who won a gold medal in the 400-metre hurdles at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Tisdall was raised in Nenagh, County Tipperary. He had run only six 400 m hurdles when he won the gold medal at the 1932 Olympic Games in a world record time of 51.7 seconds, which was not recognised under the rules of the time because he had hit a hurdle. Later, because of the notoriety of this incident, the rules were changed and the President of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch, presented Tisdall with a Waterford crystal rose bowl with the image of him knocking over the last hurdle etched into the glass.
Early career
Born in Sri Lanka to a family of Irish landed gentry, he lived on his father's plantation until the age of 5, when he returned to his family's home in Ireland. Following prep school at Mourne Grange, Tisdall went on to Shrewsbury School, where he won the Public Schools , and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he won a record four events – and hurdles, long jump and shot put – in the annual match against Oxford. This record was only equalled nearly 60 years later. Tisdall had a chance to compete in five events, but selected Ted Cawston to run for him in the low hurdles so that Cawston could receive his "blue". Cawston justified his selection by winning the event that Tisdall had won the previous two years.
Olympics
In 1928, Ireland, as an independent nation, had won its first Olympic gold medal at Amsterdam with Dr Pat O'Callaghan's unexpected victory in the hammer event. At the time he was barely out of the novice class and he had been included in the Irish Team mainly to gain experience of top-class competition. Over the years, he was to develop into one of the world's greatest hammer-throwers and he demonstrated this by winning his second Olympic gold medal at Los Angeles in 1932.
Ireland won two Olympic gold medals on Monday, 1 August 1932. The first was won by Tisdall.
His father won the All-Irish Sprint Championship; his mother played hockey for Ireland and was a formidable golfer.
Later life
Later in life, Tisdall lived in South Africa, where he ran a gymnasium during the day, which he converted into a night club after dark. He grew coffee in Tanzania, but moved to Nambour in 1969 with his wife Peggy, where he farmed fruit crops and cattle. He admitted to running his last race at the age of 80, though he ran in the Sydney Olympic torch relay at age 93. At that point he was the oldest living recipient of an individual track and field Olympic medal.
At the age of 96 he fell down a steep set of rock stairs and broke his shoulder, ribs and ruptured his spleen.