American boxerFor the New York City police detective, see Eddie Egan. For the American football player, see Ed Eagan.

Edward Patrick Francis Eagan (April 26, 1897 – June 14, 1967) was an American boxer and bobsledder who is notable as being the only person to win a gold medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games in different disciplines. Eagan won his summer gold in boxing and his winter gold in four-man bobsled. Finally, Eagan is one of the few athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Olympics
  • 2.1 Summer Olympics
  • 2.2 Winter Olympics
• 3 Personal life
• 4 See also
• 5 Notes
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Early life

Eagan in London in 1923

Eagan was born into a modest family in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Longmont High School and attended college at Denver University for one year, during which time he won the western middleweight *le. During World War I he was an artillery lieutenant and was the middleweight champion of the American Expeditionary Forces. After the war he attended Yale University. In 1919he won the AAU's heavyweight *le. After graduating from Yale in 1921, Eagan attended Harvard Law School and the University of Oxford. In 1923 he won Amateur Boxing *ociation heavyweight *le.

Olympics

Summer Olympics

In 1920, he competed as a boxer at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, and won the gold medal in the light-heavyweight division. He also competed at the 1924 Summer Olympics, but this time as a heavyweight. He failed to medal, having lost in the first round to Arthur Clifton (see Boxing at the 1924 Summer Olympics - Men's heavyweight).

Winter Olympics

Eagan returned to the Olympics eight years later, this time as a member of the bobsled crew of Billy Fiske, who steered to victory at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Eagan became the first of six Olympians to medal in both the Winter and Summer Games, followed by Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), Clara Hughes (Canada), and Lauryn Williams (United States). Eddy Alvarez joined Eagan and Williams in 2020 as the only Americans to win medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Eagan is one of two compe*ors to win gold in both Olympic seasons (the other being Gillis Grafström whose only summer gold was in figure skating).

Personal life

The grave of Eddie Eagan in Greenwood Union Cemetery, Rye, New York

In 1927 Eagan married Margaret Colgate, who was a member of the family that founded Colgate-Palmolive. In 1932 he was admitted to the New York bar and began a career in private practice. He spent five years as an *istant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York before joining the United States Army Air Forces. During World War II, he served in the Air Transport Command and visited nearly every place where the Army had planes. He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel and earned numerous decorations. After the war, Egan was appointed chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission. He resigned in 1951 to focus on his law practice.

Eddie Eagan set a world record for the fastest cir*navigation of the globe by scheduled airlines on December 13, 1948. He traveled 20,559 miles stopping at 18 different stations and beat the previous record by 20 hours and 15 minutes.

He died at age 70 in New York City and was interred at Greenwood Union Cemetery.

See also

• Adventurers' Club of New York
• List of Olympians who won medals in the Summer and Winter Games

Notes

References

External links

• Edward Eagan at Olympics.com
• Edward Eagan at Olympic.org (archived)
• Eddie Eagan at the USOPC Hall of Fame