Hector monroe dyer
Track & Field
 © US Olympic Committee
GOLD MEDAL - 4 X 100M RELAY - LOS ANGELES 1932
In the tryouts leading up to the Olympics, Dyer ran in the 100-yard dash but failed to place in the top three. He went out of town for the weekend, unaware that the next four finishers had been selected for the relay team! When he was a child, his mother befriended some ballet dancers who were looking for students; she volunteered Hector. A few years later when he started high school, he won his first race, the 50-yard dash. He attributed his leg strength to his early ballet work. His leg length probably didn't hurt, either; by the time he was 16, he was already over 6 feet tall. Known as “The Stanford Sprinter,” Dyer won the 200-meter at the intercollegiate championships of 1930. When asked about his stride, Hector explained it this way: 
"I had a nine-foot stride and the average stride is seven feet. In the pictures, I am up off the ground a few inches and nobody else is. Why is that? Well, I have a thrust and when I am running it's like being on a motorcycle—you turn on the juice. I turn on the juice mentally.
When I ran I would dig off the ground with my tiptoes. That was my thrust. When I started the race I tried to get a terrific burst of acceleration and keep my weight leaning forward. Then I'd try to take as big a step as possible. That's where you get additional speed, by taking bigger and faster steps as you accelerate. But I ran way off the ground; that's something the other guys didn't seem to do. Little "Wee Willie" Carr, the famous 100-meter runner from the Olympics, had an 11-foot stride. He'd just lope along like a gazelle. We'd work out together at the Village and I couldn't keep up with him." |
"Hec" Dyer at Stanford
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Following the 1932 Games, Dyer sold some of the buildings that comprised the athletes’ housing village; he sold over 200 of them, at $200 apiece.
In 1984, leading up to the second Summer Games in Los Angeles, Hec carried the Olympic torch as part of the torch relay. It was in this year that Disneyland honored previous competitors with a parade on Main Street U.S.A.
In 1984, leading up to the second Summer Games in Los Angeles, Hec carried the Olympic torch as part of the torch relay. It was in this year that Disneyland honored previous competitors with a parade on Main Street U.S.A.