Career
At the age of 15 Williams suffered from rheumatic fever and was advised to avoid strenuous physical activities. To earn his travel ticket for the trials Wiliams and his volunteer coach Bob Granger worked as waiters and dishwashers in a dining car, and Vancouver track fans raised the money to pay Granger"s transatlantic ship passage to the 1928 Olympics. He was also part of the Canadian team which was disqualified in the final of the 4×100 metre relay contest.
He suffered a pulled thigh muscle at the British Empire Games and never made a full comeback.
At the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, he was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100 metre event. With the Canadian team he finished fourth in the 4×100 metre relay competition.
Subsequently, Williams stopped running and became an insurance agent. Williams stayed with his mother until she died in 1977.
After that, he lived alone and suffered from arthritic pain.
His suicide was a surprise to everyone and no note was left. He was interred at Masonic Cemetery of British Columbia, Burnaby, Canada. In 1950, a Canadian press poll proclaimed Williams Canada"s greatest track athlete of the first half of the century.
They updated that in 1972 to declare him Canada"s all-time greatest Olympic athlete.
He had donated two gold medals from the 1928 Olympics to the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame, saying that he wanted them to be seen and remembered. Within weeks they were stolen.
lieutenant was said at the time that Williams simply shrugged off the loss and no replacements were ever issued.