Harrison Dillard, pictured training for the 1948 Olympics, has died aged 96 ©Getty Images

Cleveland's St Paul AME Zion Church will hold the funeral for one of the city's most honoured sons on Saturday (November 23) - four-time Olympic gold medallist Harrison Dillard, who died last Friday (November 15) aged 96.

Dillard is the only male athlete to have won both 100 and 110 metres hurdles titles at the Olympics, and had been the oldest living US Olympic champion.

He also won the 1955 Sullivan Award as the nation's outstanding amateur athlete.

Dillard, whose nickname was "Bones", had been the outstanding high hurdler in the world leading into the 1948 London Olympics, remaining unbeaten in a sequence of 83 races.

The run ended when he tried to win four races in the space of 67 minutes at the AAU meeting in Milwaukee - a feat to emulate his idol and fellow Cleveland citizen Jesse Owens, who famously set four world records and equalled a fourth in the space of 45 minutes at Ann Arbor in 1935.

Dillard lost over the 100m and 110m hurdles, and a week later, at the United States trials in Evanston, Illinois, failed to finish the 110m hurdles final after hitting three of the barriers.

But he had qualified the previous day for the 100m after finishing third behind the winner Barney Ewell, who set a world record of 10.20sec, and world 100 yards record holder Mel Patton.

In London, Harrison won the 100m on a photo-finish - setting an Olympic record of 10.30, and he added gold in the 4x100m.

Four years later in Helsinki, he finally claimed the hurdles title on which he said he had set his heart, setting an Olympic record of 13.70, and won a second sprint relay gold.

Harrison Dillard pictured in Barcelona during the IAAF centenary celebrations in 1912 ©Getty Images
Harrison Dillard pictured in Barcelona during the IAAF centenary celebrations in 1912 ©Getty Images

Overall, Dillard won more than 400 races, claiming 11 indoor and outdoor National Championships.

He held world hurdles records at 60 yards indoors, and 110y and 220y outdoors.

Dillard was a sharp-shooter in the last racially segregated unit in the US Army in World War Two, serving as a Buffalo Soldier in the 92nd Infantry Division.

Longtime friend Ted Theodore said Dillard died Friday at the Cleveland Clinic, where he had been suffering from stomach cancer.

"It is a loss for humanity," Theodore told Cleveland.com.

"He was an example for all of us, how to live our lives, with never an unkind word for anyone.

"He was a champion, a true champion."

Dillard's wife, Joy, died in 2009.

He is survived by a daughter, Terri, and three grandchildren.