Harrison Dillard

Harrison Dillard
Harrison Dillard at the 1952 Olympics
Full name	William Harrison Dillard
nation	United States
birthday	July 8, 1923
place of birth	Cleveland
size	178 cm
Weight	69 kg
date of death	15th November 2019
Place of death	Cleveland
Career
discipline	Sprint , hurdles
society	Baldwin-Wallace College
Medal table
Olympic games 4 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold London 1948 100 m gold London 1948 4 × 100 m gold Helsinki 1952 110 m hurdles gold Helsinki 1952 4 × 100 m

William Harrison "Bones" Dillard (born July 8, 1923 in Cleveland , Ohio ; † November 15, 2019 ibid) was an American athlete . To this day he is the only athlete who was able to become Olympic champion in both the sprint and hurdles .

Career

Dillard served in the US Army during World War II . After the war he returned to college and resumed athletics training. His great role model was the four-time Olympic champion Jesse Owens , who, like Dillard, came from Cleveland. In the late 1940s, Dillard was one of the best hurdlers in the world. In the US eliminations for the Olympic Games in 1948 , the so-called Trials, he failed in the 110-meter hurdles . Dillard only managed to qualify in third place in the 100-meter run .

At the Olympic Games in London Dillard reached the final over 100 meters. There he delivered a dead end with his compatriot Barney Ewell . Only the evaluation of the finish photo showed Dillard as the winner. His time of 10.3 s meant the setting of the Olympic record . Dillard also competed in the 4 x 100 meter relay . Together with his teammates Ewell, Lorenzo Wright and Mel Patton , Dillard secured his second gold medal before the British relay.

Four years later, Dillard was able to qualify in his specialty for the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki . In a close race, Dillard was Olympic champion over 110 meter hurdles ahead of his compatriot Jack Davis . With the US team, he won his fourth gold medal at the Olympic Games in the 4 x 100 meter relay.

Dillard took part in the 110 meter hurdles of the Maccabiade in 1953 and won the gold medal.

Dillard tried in 1956 to qualify for a third time for the Olympic Games, but failed.

After his track and field career, Dillard worked for the Cleveland Indians baseball franchise in the field of scouting and public relations and hosted a radio talk show on Cleveland's WERE. He also worked for the Cleveland City School District as its business manager for many years.

Harrison Dillard died of stomach cancer at the age of 96 in his hometown at the Cleveland Clinic .

Awards

2013: Induction into the IAAF Hall of Fame

Web links

Commons : Harrison Dillard  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Harrison Dillard in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Olympians Harrison Dillard and Herb Douglas recall life, times and the 1948 London Summer games ( Memento of August 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
2. ^ Peter Jackson: London's three Olympic Games compared. In: bbc.co.uk . July 24, 2012, accessed November 17, 2019 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Harrison Dillard . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Mal Whitfield, Olympian and Tuskegee Airman. In: drmirkin.com. August 7, 2016, accessed November 17, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Maccabiah's best athletes. In: ynetnews.com. July 16, 2005, accessed November 17, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Bob Dolgan: Track legend Harrison Dillard, four-time Olympic champion, this at 96. In: cleveland.com. November 16, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 .