LONDON (AP) — The oldest 100-meter Olympic champion is back in London for the games — only this time as a celebrated athlete, not a scrawny kid from Cleveland who botched the hurdles only to win the gold in 1948. William Harrison "Bones" Dillard (born July 8, 1923) is a American former track and field athlete.
Harrison Dillard, 89, was honored at Britain’s Foreign Office where the 1948 torch from those London games is on display.
“It’s heavy!” the man, also known as ‘Bones’ because of his lanky youthful appearance, said as he held the silver torch.
As a world record holder, all eyes were on Dillard in 1948 to win the 110-meter hurdles. But when the day came, the American knocked down several hurdles and failed to finish the race.
He tried again in the 100-meter dash, winning in 10.3 seconds — a surprise to his teammate and favorite Barney Ewell, who did a premature victory dance thinking he had actually won.*
Four years after London, Dillard went on to win the 100-meter hurdles in Helsinki.
“That’s one of the beauties of the Olympic Games, that they occur every four years,” Dillard told The Associated Press. “The athlete who fails in the first, assuming that he can maintain the necessary physical ability plus the emotional and mental ability, has a chance to redeem him or herself. I certainly had that good fortune.”
Olympic Games
Gold
1948 London
100 m
Gold
1948 London
4x100 m relay
Gold
1952 Helsinki
110 m hurdles
Gold
1952 Helsinki
4x100 m relay
*Side note: "The 1948 games were the first time that Olympic judges had the benefit of using photo finish technology, which helps the naked eye in determining who crossed the finish line first."
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