The standout name at the beginning of the 1921 season was Charley Paddock, the winner of the Antwerp 100 meters, who excelled on the Redlands University field under the California sun on April 23. The most significant record he then dashed was the 100 meters, clocked at 10.4. The former world record held by many runners was improved by 0.2 seconds. In the same race, Paddock recorded a time of 9.6 at the 100-yard mark (91.44 meters), equaling the world record for the imperial distance.

Not submitted for ratification

Paddock indulged in true madness a couple of months later in Pasadena, California, where he sprinted 110 yards (100.58 meters) in a suspicious time of 10.2. The American Amateur Athletic Union could not believe the result hammered out on the hard track in Pasadena.  The union found an escape clause in the rulebook, stating that a performance in a longer distance cannot be accepted as a record for a shorter distance. Therefore, Americans did not need to send Paddock's astonishing result to the international association for ratification.

Paddock was not spared from injuries at the competitions held on his namesake track. He pulled his leg, which led the doctors to announce that Paddock would no longer reach his previous record level. The prognosis was perhaps accurate to some extent. 

Paddock, a sturdy guy (175 cm – 5-6), had some peculiar habits. For instance, he imagined winning a few hundredths by leaping across the finish line. It is uncertain whether he gained any advantage from this. It's suspected that the purpose of the jump was to manipulate the timekeepers: a powerful movement before the finish line might make them stop the clocks slightly earlier.

Fact or Fiction?

Is Paddock's 10.2 possible? Yes and no. The tracks of the 1920s were poor, and starting blocks were not used, so it is unlikely that a result from that time would have stood as a world record until the 1950s. The result may be explained by Paddock competing in his hometown of Pasadena. He might have known the starters' habits and been able to anticipate the start slightly. It is also possible that the timekeepers were more experienced citizens who reacted to the pistol smoke a bit more slowly.

Observers have pointed out that Paddock covered the distance from 100 to 110 yards (9.14 meters) in 0.6 seconds according to the splits, which is impossible. Statistician Richard Hymans, on the other hand, notes in his Progression of World Athletics Records that in the 1920s, officials used clocks that measured time with a precision of one-fifth of a second. If Paddock's split time for 100 yards had been taken with a tenth of a second accuracy, it could well have been 9.5.

Emmons 3.97 – The World Leader in the Pole Vault

The world-leading result was broken in the pole vault in Pasadena. Richard Emmons, a 20-year-old from the University of Southern California, cleared the bar set at 3.97 (13-0). It was perhaps the best achievement of his short athletic career, excluding his fourth-place finish in the US Championships in 1922.

Newspaper and Online Stories

• AP, June 20, 1921

• Profile of Charley Paddock (Obrey Brown)

Additional Sources

• Hymans, Richard, Progression of World Athletics Records

• Quercetani, Roberto, A World History of Track And Field Athletics