60 Fun Facts About The 100 Metres

What is the men's 100 metres world record?

It was set in the 2009 World Championships final in Berlin, taking 0.11 off the previous mark.

Who holds the women's 100 metres world record of 10.49 seconds?

She ran it at the 1988 US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, taking 0.27 off Ashford's record.

What are the three instructions given to sprinters at the start of a 100 m race?

The set position lets them preload their muscles isometrically for a faster start.

At roughly what point in a 100 m race do sprinters reach top speed?

They then decelerate towards the line, so holding top speed is the main training focus.

A reaction time faster than how many seconds is ruled a false start?

Tests suggest the human brain cannot respond to the gun any quicker than that.

Since 2010, what happens to a sprinter who false-starts?

The rule caught the world record holder himself at the 2011 World Championships.

Which sprinter was famously disqualified for a false start in the 2011 World Championships 100 m final?

His training partner Yohan Blake won the title in his absence.

What is the maximum tailwind allowed for a 100 m time to count for records?

Times run above 1,000 m altitude are marked with an A but are still legal.

Which part of the body must cross the finish line first to win?

Limbs, head and neck do not count, and a photo finish settles close calls.

Who was the first man to break 10 seconds with automatic timing, at the 1968 Olympics?

His 9.95 in Mexico City stood as the world record for almost 15 years.

What happened at the US championships in Sacramento on 20 June 1968, the so-called 'Night of Speed'?

Hines, Ronnie Ray Smith and Charles Greene all dipped under 10 that evening.

Which NFL team drafted the 1968 Olympic 100 m champion after his gold, giving him the nickname 'Oops'?

He was picked 146th overall in 1968 and appeared in ten games for Miami.

Who was the first woman to run under 11 seconds?

Eleven seconds is the women's equivalent of the men's ten-second barrier.

Since when has the IAAF required fully automatic timing to a hundredth of a second for 100 m records?

The men's record has been improved twelve times since then.

Bob Hayes ran a wind-assisted sub-10 at the 1964 Olympics; what wind reading made it illegal?

His 9.91 came in the semi-finals; his 10.0 in the final tied the world record.

Why was Bob Hayes's lane 1 in the 1964 Olympic final in such poor condition?

He still won gold and went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Dallas Cowboys.

Why did the judges initially rule Armin Hary's 10.0 in Zurich in 1960 a false start?

He was allowed to run again and produced another 10.0, the first ratified at that time.

Armin Hary's 1960 Olympic gold made him the first non-American winner since which Canadian in 1928?

The Americans' grip on the event was almost total in the interwar and postwar decades.

Which sprinter won the very first Olympic 100 m in 1896?

The women's event did not join the programme until 1928.

Who was the first women's Olympic 100 m champion, in 1928?

Fifteen men from eight nations had contested the first men's final 32 years earlier.

How many gold medals did Jesse Owens win at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, including the 100 m?

He also won the 200 m, long jump and 4x100 m relay.

Which sprinter emulated Owens's Berlin haul at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?

He won nine Olympic golds in all and was named Sportsman of the Century by the IOC in 1999.

Which childhood illness did Wilma Rudolph overcome before her three golds in Rome in 1960?

She lost strength in her left leg and foot and wore a brace, making weekly bus trips to Nashville for treatment.

Who was the first person to retain the Olympic 100 m title, in 1964 and 1968?

Lewis, Devers, Fraser-Pryce and Bolt have since matched her.

What time did Ben Johnson run to win the 1988 Seoul Olympic final before being disqualified?

His sample tested positive for a steroid; Lewis's 9.92 became the world record.

Which banned substance was found in Ben Johnson's urine sample in Seoul?

He was disqualified three days after the race and later admitted doping when he set his 1987 record too.

What is the name of Charlie Francis's book about coaching Ben Johnson, admitting his athletes used steroids?

Francis claimed all top athletes were doing the same.

Where did Usain Bolt first break the 100 m world record, running 9.72 in May 2008?

It was only his fifth senior 100 m race; Tyson Gay finished second.

What time did Bolt run in the 2008 Beijing Olympic final despite slapping his chest before the line?

Kriss Akabusi called the celebration showboating; Bolt said the gold, not the record, was the goal.

The Berlin record run took how much off the previous record, the electronic era's biggest cut?

He also broke the 200 m record twice, ending at 19.19.

What is the men's Olympic 100 m record?

The women's Olympic record is a 10.61 from Tokyo 2021.

How many consecutive Olympic 100 m titles did Usain Bolt win?

He won in 2008, 2012 and 2016, doubling up in the 200 m each time.

Why is the women's 10.49 world record considered suspicious?

A triple-jump anemometer 10 metres away read 4.3 m/s, more than double the legal limit.

Which sprinter ran 10.54 in 2021, the second-fastest legal women's time ever?

She became the first woman to break the 40 km/h barrier and had just retained both Olympic sprint titles.

Which sprinter is the only person to win five world 100 m titles?

The Pocket Rocket won in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019 and 2022, and her 10.60 makes her the third fastest woman ever.

Who took the Olympic 100 m gold in Paris in 2024 by five thousandths of a second?

Both he and Kishane Thompson clocked 9.79; his 9.784 beat Thompson's 9.789.

The 2024 Paris men's 100 m gold was the first American win since which sprinter in 2004?

Gatlin later served a lengthy doping ban and won the 2017 world title at 35.

Which sport did the 2024 Olympic 100 m champion compete in before taking up track at age 12?

He grew up with asthma and was home-schooled early on.

Julien Alfred's 2024 Olympic 100 m gold was the first Olympic medal of any kind for which country?

She ran a national record 10.72 in the Paris final.

Marion Jones was stripped of her 2000 Sydney 100 m gold after admitting drug use linked to which scandal?

She had won three golds and two bronzes at those Games.

Who is credited with inventing starting blocks in 1929?

Before that, sprinters dug holes in the cinder track with trowels handed out at the start.

Why was George Simpson's world-first 9.4 for 100 yards in 1930 disallowed?

Blocks were still considered illegal equipment then; today they are mandatory at elite level.

Who was the youngest ever Olympic 100 m competitor, aged 14 in Athens 2004?

The oldest medallist won bronze at 40 in Sydney.

Which sprinter appeared in a record six Olympic 100 m competitions between 1984 and 2004?

She won bronze at 40 in Sydney and reached the semi-finals in Athens.

Where did Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson race over 150 m in 1997 to settle who was the world's fastest man?

Bailey won when Johnson pulled up injured; they shared $1.5 million.

Which Oscar-winning 1981 film dramatised Harold Abrahams's 1924 Olympic 100 m victory?

It is often listed among the greatest sports films of all time.

Who was the first Black man to win the Olympic 100 m, in 1932?

Since then only five men's champions have not had significant African heritage.

Which nation has won most Olympic 100 m golds, with sixteen men's and nine women's titles?

Jamaica's Bolt and Thompson-Herah are the only athletes to have doubled up in the 200 m and relay more than once.

Between 1900 and 1904 the Olympic 100 m briefly lost its status as the shortest sprint to which event?

The 100 m has otherwise been the shortest Olympic sprint at every Games.

Which Cuban became only the second man to run a legal sub-10, clocking 9.98 nine years after Hines?

Like the first sub-10 in 1968, it was run at high altitude.

Which nickname did Bob Hayes carry from the track to the NFL?

After Tokyo gold he played split end for the Dallas Cowboys and reached the Hall of Fame.

Which sprinter has broken the 10-second barrier more times than anyone else?

Powell had 97 sub-10 clockings by 2016 despite never winning an individual Olympic or world title over 100 m.

Whose 9.71 for silver at the 2009 Worlds is the fastest non-winning 100 m time in history?

Gay's misfortune was running the race of his life in the same final where Bolt produced his 9.58 world record.

Whose 9.93 at Colorado Springs in 1983 ended a world record that had stood almost 15 years?

Both the old 1968 record and Smith's new one were set at high altitude, where thinner air offers less resistance.

Who became the first Asian-born sprinter to break the 10-second barrier?

In his Tokyo 2020 semi-final Su ran 9.83 and covered the first 60 m faster than anyone ever recorded under any conditions.

Which Italian won the men's 100 m at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics?

Jacobs, a former long jumper, was the first Italian ever to even reach an Olympic 100 m final, and days later added relay gold.

Who was the first European athlete to break 10 seconds for 100 m?

Christie is also the only British man to win 100 m gold at the Olympics, Worlds, Europeans and Commonwealth Games.

Who won the Olympic 100 m in Moscow in 1980, a Games boycotted by the United States?

The Scot went on to complete a 100 m/200 m double at the 1982 Commonwealth Games.

Who is the only man to run under 10 seconds after turning forty?

The 2003 world champion from Saint Kitts and Nevis competed at five Olympics between 1996 and 2016.

Who first won the 100 m, 200 m and 4x100 m at a single World Championships, in 1999?

Greene also held the 100 m world record at 9.79 and the indoor 60 m record for nearly two decades.