Jack Nelson

Juan Santiago Nelson, known as Jack, was born in Buenos Aires on 26 May 1891 and died there on 19 December 1983. Olympedia, the Olympic reference database, states that he was of Irish descent; no source opened for this site traces his family's county, so his link is graded as reported rather than documented.

Nelson captained the Argentine polo team at the 1924 Olympic Games, where it won the country's first Olympic gold in any sport. In the final Argentina beat the United States 6–5, and Nelson scored the winning goal. His team-mate Arturo Kenny had scored six goals against Spain on the way. Argentina won polo gold again in 1936 with Luis Duggan in the team. Olympedia states Irish descent for Kenny, Nelson and Duggan, but not for their 1936 team-mate Roberto Cavanagh, whose link rests only on his surnames.

Irish Argentines were prominent in polo's golden age, and today the horse link between the two countries runs through thoroughbreds and polo. The Cup of the Argentine Republic is played each year at the All Ireland Polo Club in Phoenix Park, Dublin.