Foy Draper (November 26, 1911 – February 1, 1943) was an American

track and field athlete Track and field is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of ...

who won a gold medal in 4 × 100 m

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

. As a

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

student, Draper won the

IC4A IC4A Championships (Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America) is an annual men's competition held at different colleges every year. Association was established in 1875, the competition (started in 1876) served as the top level col ...

championships in 200 m in 1935. He reportedly held the world record for the

100-yard dash 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

, at the time that would have been a hand timed 9.4, made all that more remarkable with Draper standing only 5'5".Faster than the Fastest , Longform
SI.com. Retrieved on August 20, 2015. At the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, Draper ran the third leg in the American 4 × 100 m relay team, which won the gold medal in a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

time of 39.8.Foy Draper
. Sports Reference. Retrieved on August 20, 2015. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Draper served as a pilot on a twin-engine attack bomber A-20B 'Havoc' in Thelepte, Tunisia. On January 4, 1943, 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 North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial is a Second World War military war grave cemetery, located in the town of Carthage in Tunisia. The cemetery, the only American one in North Africa and dedicated in 1960, contains 2,841 American war dead ...

administered by the

American Battle Monuments Commission The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) is an independent agency of the United States government that administers, operates, and maintains permanent U.S. military cemeteries, memorials and monuments primarily outside the United States. ...

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

, Tunisia. His gravestone shows January 4, 1943 as his date of death.

References

External links

* 1911 births 1943 deaths American male sprinters United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II United States Army Air Forces personnel killed in World War II Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field University of Southern California alumni Track and field athletes from California Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics {{US-athletics-Olympic-medalist-stub