Career
After playing football in his youth, Hary switched to sprinting at age 16. He was also one of the first track stars to be affected by the rivalry between Adidas and Puma. Each of the two then-fledgling companies wanted the "world"s fastest man" to wear its shoes.
Also in 1958, Hary appeared to have run a new world record with a time of 10.0 seconds, but the track"s slope of 11 centimetres (433 in) was found to exceed the maximum allowed 10 centimetres (394 in).
In 1960 Hary set the world record, which was equaled 24 days later, but stood as a European record for eight years less one day. In the final of the 4×100 m, Hary and his teammates appeared to have finished second behind the American team, but 15 minutes later the Americans had been disqualified for a faulty exchange.
Germany"s time, 39.5 seconds, equaled their own world record. During his career Hary had multiple conflicts with the German Athletics Federation, which eventually suspended him.
These conflicts and waning motivation to compete resulted in Hary"s retirement from sport in the early 1960s.
In 2000 he was selected as Germany’s Runner of the Millennium. In 2011 he was inducted into the German Sports Hall of Fame.