Percy Williams

Percy Williams
Full name	Percy Alfred Williams
nation	Canada
birthday	May 19, 1908
place of birth	Vancouver
size	170 cm
Weight	56 kg
date of death	November 29, 1982
Place of death	Vancouver
Career
discipline	sprint
Best performance	10.3 s ( 100 m ) 21.7 s ( 200 m )
society	Vancouver Athletic Club
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × 0 × 0 × Commonwealth Games 1 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Amsterdam 1928 100 m gold Amsterdam 1928 200 m  Commonwealth Games gold Hamilton 1930 100 yds

Percy Williams (born May 19, 1908 in Vancouver , British Columbia , † November 29, 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia) was a Canadian athlete . At the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928 , he was a two-time Olympic champion over the sprint courses.

biography

Williams surprisingly won the Canadian qualifying races for participation in the Amsterdam Olympic Games in 1928 at the age of 20. There he easily reached the final. Thanks to a good start, Williams was in the lead early on and finally won the race in 10.8 seconds ahead of British Jack London and German Georg Lammers .

Williams was also successful over 200 meters. With a time of 21.9 s he won ahead of the Britons Walter Rangeley and Helmut Körnig from Germany. On his return to his homeland, he was enthusiastically celebrated by his compatriots.

In the years that followed, Williams repeatedly demonstrated that his Olympic victories were not accidental successes. At the British Empire Games in Hamilton in 1930 , he won the 100 meter race and set a new world record in 10.3 seconds .

The US Athletics Federation officials, enviously gazing over the northern border, organized a series of indoor competitions in which the US sprinters were supposed to prove that they were stronger than their Canadian counterpart. To the surprise of the organizers, Williams won 19 of the 21 scheduled races.

A muscle strain in the thigh interrupted his winning streak for a while. After that, he was never able to fully build on his previous achievements. At the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , he was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Williams then ended his active career and became an insurance agent.

Williams lived with his mother until her death in 1977. After her death, he became lonely, plagued by the constant pain caused by his arthritis . Williams committed suicide on November 29, 1982.

Web links

• Percy Williams in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )