Percy Williams
His thrilling 100-metre victory at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics was so unexpected that officials had to scramble to find a recording of the Canadian anthem. Williams gave them a second chance to get it right, winning the 200-metre race as well.
Not bad for a kid who doctors had warned to avoid physical activity and excitement because a bout of rheumatic fever at 15 had damaged his heart. Never one to let any challenge stand in his way, the 19-year-old from Vancouver got himself to the Olympic trials in Hamilton by working as a waiter on the railway dining car and, once at the Games, the five-foot-six, skinny Canadian boldly beat the favoured men.
Williams was as modest as he was slight, writing in his diary after the quarter-finals: “I always imagined it was a game of heroes. Well, I’m in the semifinal myself so it can’t be so hot.”
But it was and so was he.