Billy Sherring

Who was Billy Sherring?

Billy Sherring was an Irish Canadian athlete, winner of the marathon race at the 1906 Intercalated Games.

In the early 1900s, Billy Sherring from Hamilton, Ontario was acknowledged to be a world class marathoner. He had won a second place behind a fellow countryman Jack Caffery at the Boston Marathon in 1900. He also had won the Hamilton Around the Bay Road Race on two occasions.

In 1906, Sherring – an athlete of St. Patrick's Athletic Club – was chosen to represent Canada in the Athens Olympic Games. However, it was left up to him, a working man with meager resources, to finance his journey to Athens. Sherring managed to collect an amount claimed to be between $45 and $90, which he then bet on a horse named Cicely which won with good odds. He arrived to Athens seven weeks before the Olympic Games and started to work as a porter at the Athens railway station.

At the marathon race, the 45 kg Sherring led almost all the distance. Prince George of Greece ran the last 50 metres of the marathon alongside Sherring. Sherring received a live lamb and a statue of Athena as a reward.