Harrison Dillard should never have won the 1948 Olympic 100 metres gold medal on a blazing July day at Wembley Stadium. He shouldn’t have been in the final. This weekend, that gold medal is up for sale.
He entered the event at the American trials to sharpen his speed work for the high hurdles, his specialist event. Back then, the 25-year-old Clevelander was the greatest sprint hurdler the world had seen and had racked up 82 consecutive wins before the trials and held the world record of 13.6sec in the 120-yard hurdles. He was deemed unbeatable. Then catastrophe struck.
