Foy Draper
![]() Draper in 1936 | ||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||
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Born | November 26, 1911 Georgetown, Texas, United States | |||||||||||
Died | February 1, 1943 (aged 31) Kasserine Pass, Kasserine, Tunisia | |||||||||||
Alma mater | University of Southern California | |||||||||||
Height | 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) | |||||||||||
Weight | 54 kg (119 lb) | |||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||
Sport | Track and field | |||||||||||
Event | 100 m | |||||||||||
Club | USC Trojans, Los Angeles | |||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||
Personal best | 100 m – 10.3 (1936)[1] | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Foy Draper (November 26, 1911 – February 1, 1943) was an American track and field athlete who won a gold medal in 4 × 100 m relay at the 1936 Summer Olympics. As a University of Southern California student, Draper won the IC4A championships in 200 m in 1935.
He reportedly held the world record for the 100-yard dash, which at the time would have been a hand-timed 9.4, made all the more remarkable by Draper standing only 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m).[2]
At the Berlin Olympics, Draper ran the third leg in the American 4 × 100 m relay team, which won the gold medal in a world record time of 39.8.[1]
During World War II, Draper served as a pilot on a twin-engine attack bomber A-20B 'Havoc' in Thelepte, Tunisia. On January 4, 1943,[3] Draper took off to take part in the battle of Kassarine Pass. Draper and his two crewmen never returned and his death date is usually given as February 1, 1943. He is buried in the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission in Carthage, Tunisia. His gravestone shows January 4, 1943 as his date of death.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Foy Draper Archived October 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Sports Reference. Retrieved on August 20, 2015.
- ^ Faster than the Fastest | Longform. SI.com. Retrieved on August 20, 2015.
- ^ "Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
External links
[edit]![](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- 1911 births
- 1943 deaths
- American male sprinters
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
- Track and field athletes from California
- United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II
- United States Army Air Forces personnel killed in World War II
- University of Southern California alumni
- American track and field athletics Olympic medalist stubs