William Reuben Applegarth (11 May 1890 – 5 December 1958) was a British

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 ...

athlete, and winner of a gold medal in the

4 × 100 metres relay The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the indiv ...

at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

Biography

Born in Guisborough, then in the North Riding of Yorkshire, William Applegarth was one of the best European sprinters during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. At the Stockholm Olympics, Applegarth was eliminated in the semifinals of the 100 m competition and won a bronze medal in the 200 m. As the anchoring leg in the British 4 × 100 m relay team, he won a gold medal, in spite of finishing second after the US in the semifinal. The United States was later disqualified for a fault in passing the baton; the same mistake was made in the final by 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 ...

holder and main favourite German team. Applegarth was a British AAA champion in in 1913 and 1914 and in from 1912 to 1914. Shortly after the Olympics, Applegarth repeated Donald Lippincott's world record in the 100 m of 10.6 and set a new world record of 21.2 in the 200 m in the 1914 AAA meeting. His 200 m record was not broken until 1928. In November 1914, Applegarth turned professional and in 1922 emigrated to America, where he became the track and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

coach at

Mercersburg Academy Mercersburg Academy (formerly Marshall College and Mercersburg College) is an independent selective college-preparatory boarding & day high school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania in the United States. Founded in 1893, the school enrolls approximat ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He also played for Brooklyn in the American Soccer League. In 1925 he retired from sport and began working as a welder at the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

Company, where he stayed until 1955. He died aged 68, in the same year that his British record of 9.8 s was finally broken.Willie Applegarth
sports-reference.com

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Applegarth, Willie 1890 births 1958 deaths People from Guisborough English men's footballers English male sprinters British male sprinters Olympic athletes for Great Britain Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1912 Summer Olympics English Olympic medallists Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Brooklyn Wanderers (1922–1931) players American Soccer League (1921–1933) players Men's association football players not categorized by position English expatriate sportspeople in the United States