Robert Morton Newburgh Tisdall (16 May 1907 in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon – 27 July 2004 in Nambour, Queensland, Australia) was an Irish athlete who won a gold medal in the 400-metre hurdles at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Later, because of the notoriety of this incident, the rules were changed and the President of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch, presented Tisdall with a Waterford crystal rose bowl with the image of him knocking over the last hurdle etched into the glass.

[3] In 1928, Ireland, as an independent nation, had won its first Olympic gold medal at Amsterdam with Dr Pat O'Callaghan's unexpected victory in the hammer event.

Over the years, he was to develop into one of the world's greatest hammer-throwers and he demonstrated this by winning his second Olympic gold medal at Los Angeles in 1932.

[citation needed] His father won the All-Irish Sprint Championship; his mother played hockey for Ireland and was a formidable golfer.

[citation needed] Tisdall had, in the midst of The Depression, what he describes as "the best job in the world", as an aide to a young Indian Maharaja, escorting him around Europe, showing him the cultural and natural sights.

To pursue his Olympic dream, Tisdall had to leave this job and live in a disused railway carriage in an orchard, where he trained by running around the rows of trees.

[citation needed] At the age of 96 he fell down a steep set of rock stairs and broke his shoulder, ribs and ruptured his spleen.