Drayton was born as
Peter Buniak on January 10, 1945, in Munich, Germany, to parents of Russian-Ukrainian background. Having been born as the Second World War was coming to an end and extreme poverty was widespread, Drayton and his parents had travelled to Germany from Poland aboard a cattle train. Drayton's parents eventually divorced and his mother, who had custody of him, moved to Canada and then brought Drayton over to
Toronto in November 1956 when he was 11 years old. Taking up running in high school, Drayton won the Ontario high school championships for
Mimico High School and he was recruited to the
Toronto Olympic Club where he began working with national distance running coach Paul Poce. He reportedly based his new name on two famous sprinters he admired: Canadian former world record holder
Harry Jerome and American
Paul Drayton, former world record holder in the 4 × 100 m as part of the American relay team. However, Drayton denied this, stating that he chose Jerome because it was a name he had always liked, and Drayton because he thought the two names fit well together. Drayton died from complications during knee surgery in Toronto on February 10, 2025, at the age of 80. ==Achievements==