Armin HARY

Almost purely a 100-metre sprinter, Armin Hary won the 1958 European Championships and was ranked third in the world that year. His 1960 Olympic gold medal followed his performance at Zürich’s Weltklasse meet in June 1960, when he became the first sprinter to record 10.0 for the 100. He ended 1960 ranked first in the world, also winning German titles that year in the 100 and 200.

But after the Rome Olympics, Hary was suspended by the Deutsche Leichtathletik-Verband (DLV) for padding expense reports, and was suspended to the end of 1961, after which he retired, also due to the effects of a knee injury from a car accident (for which he received 200,000 DM from his insurance company). The background behind his suspension was that he dealt with adidas and Puma simultaneously, changing his shoes between his gold-medal run and the medal ceremony, which was forbidden at that time.

In 1980 Hary was sentenced to 18 months in prison for financial fraud, when, as a real estate trader, he was found to have de-frauded the Catholic Church of around 3.2 million DM, although parts of the decision were later reversed by the highest German Court, the Bundesgerichtshof. In 2000 Armin Hary was selected as Germany’s Runner of the Millennium. In 2011 he was inducted into the German Sports Hall of Fame.

Personal Best: 100 – 10.0 (1960).