Maeve Kyle, a pioneering figure in Irish athletics and a former hockey international, has died at the age of 96.
Kilkenny native Kyle, neé Shankey, racked up 58 caps for Ireland’s hockey team before shifting her focus to athletics after meeting her future husband, athletics coach Sean Kyle, in 1953.
Kyle became the first woman to represent Ireland in track and field at an Olympic Games when she contested the 100m and 200m at Melbourne 1956 as a 28-year-old in a career that became even more remarkable for its longevity.
The honour of representing her country came at a financial cost, with the Ballymena-based athlete required to stump up £200 to make the trip Down Under.
Kyle went on to compete at Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964, reaching the semi-finals in both the 400m and 800m in her final Games as a competitor.
Two years later, Kyle claimed a bronze medal in the 400m at the European Indoors in Dortmund in what was then West Germany.
Gold medals and records in multiple disciplines at World Masters level were attained in the following years, while the athletes of the Ballymena & Antrim Athletics Club the couple founded continued to flourish under her tutelage and that of her husband, including 1972 Olympic pentathlon champion Mary Peters.
Kyle enjoyed tenures as manager of both Team GB and Ireland, figuring in a fourth Olympics when serving as a coach to the Ireland team at Sydney 2000.
Voted into the RTÉ/Irish Sports Council Hall of Fame Award in 2008, Kyle was honoured by multiple athletics bodies on the Ireland of honour and in the UK, and was elected as a life vice-president of Athletics Ireland.
Predeceased by her husband Sean in 2015, she is survived by her daughter Shauna and her granddaughter Indy.
