Noel Purcell is unique in Irish sporting history as the only Irish international rugby player to have won an Olympic medal - winning a gold medal as a member of the Great Britain water polo team at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games before going on to compete for Ireland at the 1924 Paris Games. A high-profile barrister and graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Purcell's achievements in 1920 and 1921 alone - an Olympic gold medal, an Irish swimming title (440y freestyle), a Leinster Senior Cup medal in water polo, four Ireland rugby caps and the presidency of the IASA, while also captaining Lansdowne RFC to the Leinster Senior Rugby Cup - represent an intensity of sporting achievement rarely matched. He had been capped for Ireland against England, Scotland, Wales and France and in 1927 refereed the England-Scotland international. At Paris, as a thirty-three-year-old veteran, he was one of two experienced players named in the water polo team. He carried the harp-shaped wreath of roses in the ceremony at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe at the opening of the Games alongside Sean Lavan.
Water Polo
