Edward James "Eddie" Hart (born April 24, 1949) is an American former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes 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 the jumping eve ...

sprinter, winner of the gold medal in 4 × 100 m relay race at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

. Born in

Martinez, California Martinez ( Spanish: ''Martínez'') is a city and the county seat of Contra Costa County, California, United States, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Located on the southern shore of the Carquinez Strait, the city's popul ...

, Eddie Hart won the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

championships in 100 yd in 1970 as a

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

student. At the US Olympic Trials in 1972, both Hart and Rey Robinson repeated the

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 ...

, running the 100 m in 9.9 seconds, and were favored to win the race at the

Olympic Games 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 vari ...

. But in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, they were both eliminated in the 100 m race because their coach, Stan Wright, unknowingly using an outdated Olympic schedule to determine the starting time of their quarterfinal heat, failed to deliver them to the track on time. This failure due to disorganization created much controversy. Hart also ran the anchoring leg in the American 4 × 100 m relay team, which won a gold medal and equalled the United States' own

of 38.19. Hart continued to run and in 1989 set the Masters world record in the 100 m that lasted for 14 years. In 2017 Hart released a book, ''Disqualified: Eddie Hart, Munich 1972, and the Voices of the Most Tragic Olympics'' about his Olympic experience.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Eddie 1949 births Living people American male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field People from Martinez, California American masters athletes Track and field athletes from California Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics