Athletes - Jack Shea

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	Athletes - Jack Shea

John Amos Shea (September 7, 1910 – January 22, 2002), better known as Jack Shea, was an American double-gold medalist in speed skating at the 1932 Winter Olympics. He was the first to win two gold medals at the same Olympics , and the patriarch of what the BBC identified as the first family with three generations of Olympians.

Shea won gold medals in the 500-meter and 1500-meter events, in his hometown, Lake Placid, New York. Shea chose not to defend his Olympic titles at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, at the request of a Lake Placid rabbi.

Decades later, he played a role in having the Winter Olympics return there in 1980. He served as vice chairman of the Olympic Regional Development Authority in New York, the organization that ran the sites for Lake Placid's 1980 Winter Olympics, and continues to run them to this day.

His son, Jim Shea, Sr., was a 1964 Olympian in Nordic skiing; his grandson, Jim Shea, Jr. was a 2002 Olympic skeleton gold medalist.

Outside of sports

Shea graduated from Dartmouth College and briefly attended law school, quitting to support his family in a series of jobs. From 1958 to 1974, he was a town justice, and from 1974 until his retirement in 1983 he was the supervisor of North Elba.

External links and references

# (in PDF format) from the Olympic Regional Development Authority website # , a January 2002 BBC article # , a January 2002 news release from the Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau

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