At the age of fifteen Percy Williams was struck with rheumatic fever and was told by doctors to avoid strenuous exercise due to a damaged heart. He remained slight of build, weighing less than 57 kilograms as a competitive runner. Charlie Paddock, American sprinter and world-record holder dismissed the Canadian as "that skinny little kid." His stature, though, belied his speed.

By the spring of 1928, Williams had been racing and winning in local meets for a year, and on June 5, he and other west coast athletes were off to Hamilton and the Canadian Olympic Trials. Not yet twenty, Williams shocked the Canadian track establishment, winning the 100 and the 200 metre races. What made these accomplishments all the more noteworthy is that Williams had never before competed in a 100m race. That his time—10.6 seconds— equaled the Olympic record then on the books spoke of great possibilities to come.

Following the Olympic Trials, Williams was off to Amsterdam to represent Canada and became Canada’s first Olympic superstar when he won both the 100m and 200m championships.

For the next three years, Williams kept on running, kept on winning, and kept on setting world records. On 9 August 1930 in Toronto, his clocking of 10.3 seconds would have won him the gold in the next four Olympics. Canadians cheered, Americans scowled and sought revenge for lost pride. As a result, the Americans arranged a series of indoor track meets on surfaces and distances foreign to Williams. And yet even under these conditions, the Canadian proved he was no fluke, winning 19 of the 21 races in the series.

Throughout the twentieth century, the United States dominated the 100m and 200m events. Indeed, following Williams' victories in 1928, he would remain the first and only non-American to double gold in these events in the Olympics.

In 1930 at Hamilton’s British Empire Games, Williams was injured on route to the championships. He never recovered his blazing speed and soon fell from public favor.

In 1982, depressed at the death of his mother and suffering from constant arthritic pain, he took his own life.

Peerless Percy Williams of Vancouver, British Columbia. A flying Footprint on the cinder track of Canadian sport.