Athletics at the 1900 Paris Summer Games:

The heavy favorite in this race was Arthur Duffey, who the week before in London, had won the first of four consecutive AAA titles at 100 yards. His heat times were not remarkable but he was unpressed in both rounds. Frank Jarvis and Walter Tewksbury, however, both posted a new world record of 10.8 in winning their heats.

In the heats of this event, the French starter Meier, proved incompetent and was soon replaced by the well-known British starter George F. Sandford. The start of the final was described as very even, but at the halfway mark, Duffey had opened up a lead of a metre. Suddenly he fell to the track, having pulled a muscle badly. The others finished close together, about one yard separating the three finishers, but Frank Jarvis took the title in 11.0 seconds.

Duffey was the greatest sprinter since Bernie Wefers. In 1902, he ran 100 yards in 9.6 seconds and he won several IC4A, AAU, and AAA championships, but his name is not to be found in the record books. In 1905, he was declared a professional by AAU president James Sullivan, and Sullivan ordered all Duffey’s marks expunged from the records. Duffey’s crime, according to Charles Paddock, was that he chose to wear running shoes made by an English company, and not by the New York company with which Sullivan was affiliated.