Bill Shanahan competed in the decathlon at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, finishing 19th of 36 competitors with a score of 5426.68 points in one of the most demanding events in athletics.

From Ballinure, near Thurles, County Tipperary, Shanahan came from a family farm where his early experiments with the pole vault involved sticking a hayfork into a cock of hay to make a crossbar and vaulting over it with the handle of a spade.

He first competed in 1917 and won his first national (GAA) high jump title in 1918, retaining it each year until 1922 and winning four jump titles at the 1922 GAA championships.

He joined the Dublin Metropolitan Police in 1923 and earned Olympic selection in 1924.