Mel

Sheppard

Mel Sheppard was a five-time Olympic track and field medalist and the first athlete to win multiple gold medals in individual events at the same Olympic Games. Born in Deptford Township, New Jersey, “Peerless Mel” as he was nicknamed, won three consecutive Amateur Athletic Union titles in the 880-yard event from 1906-08. At the Olympic Games London 1908, Sheppard won five total medals, four golds and one silver, making him the most successful athlete of the Games alongside Henry Taylor of the United Kingdom. He also was a part of the Irish American Athletic Club’s four-man relay team that broke the world record in the one-mile relay at the 1909 Amateur Athletic Union Championships. After his competitive racing career, Sheppard served as an athletic director at a number of military camps during World War I, and he coached the U.S. women’s Track and Field team at the Olympic Games Amsterdam 1928. He passed away in 1942 at the age 57 in his home in Queens, New York.