Joe West competed in the men's marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, displaying exceptional courage and determination in completing the course in 49th place (2:56:22.8) despite severe cramping over the final ten miles - receiving roadside massage treatment on multiple occasions, refusing the ambulance that was summoned to assist him, and returning to his feet each time to continue to the finish.
He was the first Irish competitor in an Olympic marathon to complete the race without retiring. From Carrigaline, Co. Cork, West was immersed in the sporting culture of east Cork, where he combined an outstanding hurling career - playing for the Cork senior team beaten by Waterford in the 1948 Munster final and winning an All-Ireland junior hurling title in 1947 - with cross country running under NACAI rules, winning the Cork senior cross country title in 1945 and 1947.
A fitness enthusiast who began his day with a raw egg and sherry, he regularly ran eight miles each morning before starting his shift at the Carrigaline pottery works. He emigrated to Coventry in 1951 where he worked in a machine shop and joined the celebrated Godiva Harriers, becoming only the third club member to achieve Olympic selection after Stan Ashby (1928) and Frank Mulvihill (1948).
Recruited by Billy Morton, he won his first marathon at the AAUE/NIAAA All-Ireland championship (the Olympic trial) at Islandbridge on 23 May 1952 in 2:45:00, and finished 11th in the Polytechnic Marathon (Windsor Castle to Chiswick) in 2:36:48 three weeks later. His Helsinki race was his third marathon in eight weeks, in a competition won by Emil Zatopek - the first Olympic marathon in which every finisher completed the course in under three hours.
He was admitted to the Games through the intervention of IAAF secretary E.J. Holt and IOC President Sigfrid Edström after the OCI declined to forward his entry.
Athletics
