USATF mourns loss of Olympian Harrison Dillard

Olympic legend Harrison Dillard died Friday afternoon at the age of 96 at the Cleveland Clinic, where he had been hospitalized for a week, suffering from the effects of stomach cancer, his longtime friend Ted Theodore said.

Dillard was the oldest living U.S. Olympic gold medal-winner and to this day is the only man to ever win Olympic gold medals in both the sprints and high hurdles. Overall, he won four Olympic gold medals, individually he won the 100 meter dash in 1948 clocking an Olympic record 10.3 and claimed gold in his trademark event, the 110 meter hurdles, in 1952 in 13.7. He also won two golds in the 4x100 relays in 1948 and 1952.

“We are saddened to learn of Harrison’s Dillard’s death after a battle with cancer. His legacy as a gold medalist in the 100m and 110m hurdles remains as an amazing achievement,” USATF said in a statement. “Our sport has lost someone special and our condolences go out to his family and friends.”

A world record holder in both the high and low hurdles, Dillard won the 1953 Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete. In 1974, Dillard was inducted into the Track and Field Hall of Fame, and in 1983 he became a charter inductee into the U.S. Olympic Committee Hall of Fame.

Harrison Dillard began hurdling at the age of eight, running in an alley and using the springs from abandoned car seats as barriers. When Dillard was 13 years old, he attended a parade in Cleveland honoring triple-gold-medalist Jesse Owens upon his return from the 1936 Olympics. Dillard later met Owens, who presented him with his first pair of running shoes. Known as "Bones" because of his spindly size, Dillard attended Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, where he won four national collegiate titles in the high and low hurdles. He also took 14 AAU outdoor titles in the high and low hurdles and lost the opportunity for more because of the outbreak of World War II.

After winning 82-straight hurdles races, Dillard failed to make the 1948 Olympic team as a hurdler but qualified in the 100 meters. In London, he outleaned the favored Barney Ewell of the U.S. to win the gold medal. Four years later, he won the gold medal in his trademark event, the 110m hurdles, narrowly beating American Jack Davis. 

An outstanding starter, Dillard was virtually unbeatable indoors, winning the AAU 60-yard hurdles seven years in a row from 1947 through 1953 and again in 1955. 

Services are pending.