Funny, I managed to spent a similar time in this industry and cannot remember any claim of Java being faster than C.

That's not to say it doesn't exist: too many monkeys with internet-connected typewriters will eventually make every claim. But Google turns up a paltry 652 results for "Java faster than C"[0][1].

[0]: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22java...

[1]: On a related note, I found one of those Google searches with a single hit. Isn't there a name for that? It's "PHP faster than C"

Edit: I'm on a roll here. "Google faster than C" also gets one result: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22goog...