54 Fun Facts About The 100 Metres

Which sprinter set the women's 100 m world record of 10.49 seconds?

Florence Griffith Joyner had never won an individual Olympic or world title before 1988, then set this record at the US trials and took three Olympic golds in Seoul.

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.

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

Immediate disqualification: the old rule, one false start per race, let some sprinters false-start on purpose to unsettle rivals.

Which sprinter won the 1972 Olympic 100 m after two US favourites missed their quarterfinals over a schedule mix-up?

Valeriy Borzov nearly missed his own quarterfinal too, having dozed off before reaching the track just in time.

In a 100 m race, which part of a sprinter's body must reach the finish line first to win?

The torso: it only has to reach the nearer edge of the line, so no sprinter has to cross the finish line fully.

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

Jim Hines: in the 4x100 m relay he took the baton in third place, yet his anchor leg won his team gold.

What happened at the 'Night of Speed' in Sacramento in 1968?

Three men ran hand-timed 9.9, all in the semi-finals, yet that night's final was won in a wind-aided 10.0.

Which NFL team drafted the sprinter who won the 1968 Olympic 100 m?

Miami Dolphins: they picked him in the 1968 draft, months before his Olympic gold, but he played just ten games for them, all in 1969.

Who was the first woman to run the 100 m under 11 seconds with automatic timing?

Marlies Göhr ran 10.88 in 1977, yet at the 1980 Olympics she lost the 100 m final at the line.

What does a sprint photo-finish camera record?

Only the finish line: the camera looks through a thin vertical slit there, and each runner's time comes from a time scale on the image.

Which sprinter, runner-up in both the 1932 and 1936 Olympic 100 m, later served in the US Congress?

Ralph Metcalfe: at the 1932 Games he turned down a 200 m re-run over a disputed lane marking rather than risk his team's clean sweep.

Why was Bob Hayes's lane in poor shape for the 1964 Olympic 100 m final?

Distance races had torn it up: 10,000 m runners churned it in the rain the day before and walkers earlier that day, yet Track & Field News called Hayes's winning margin 'insulting to an Olympic final field'.

After officials ruled Armin Hary's 10.0 in Zurich in 1960 a false start, what did he do?

Ran again and matched it: the jury allowed a re-run 35 minutes later, and his second 10.0 became the world record.

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

Percy Williams worked as a waiter and dishwasher in a railway dining car to reach Canada's trials, then won both sprints in Amsterdam.

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

Thomas Burke was a 400 m man with no real sprint reputation, yet he took the 100 m title.

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

Betty Robinson: a 1931 plane crash left her unable to kneel for a normal start, yet she won 4x100 m relay gold at the 1936 Olympics.

At the 1936 Olympics, Jesse Owens won the 100 m, 200 m, relay and which field event?

Long jump: soon after those Games Owens turned professional and endured years of financial hardship.

Which sprinter emulated Jesse Owens's 1936 haul at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?

Carl Lewis: four years later he won the 100 m again, but only after the winner, Ben Johnson, was stripped of the gold.

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 became the first woman to retain the Olympic 100 m title, in 1964 and 1968?

Wyomia Tyus retired after Mexico City, then returned as a professional in 1973 and the next year won every race she entered.

Which sprinter won the 1992 Olympic 100 m after a comeback from Graves' disease?

Gail Devers: at the same Games she was leading the 100 m hurdles final when she hit the last barrier and stumbled over the line in fifth.

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

Stanozolol: Johnson denied doping at first, but at Canada's Dubin Inquiry he eventually admitted long-term steroid use.

What is the title of Charlie Francis's book about coaching Ben Johnson?

Speed Trap: Francis was banned by Athletics Canada after admitting at the Dubin Inquiry that he had introduced Johnson to drugs.

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

New York City: until that 9.72 at the Reebok Grand Prix, Bolt had been seen mainly as a 200 m runner.

What did Bolt do before the line in his 2008 Olympic 100 m record?

Slowed to celebrate: days later, in the 200 m final, he ran hard all the way to the line instead.

Which world-class hurdler won the 1948 Olympic 100 m after failing to qualify in his own event?

Harrison Dillard: four years later he made no mistake, winning the 110 m hurdles at Helsinki.

Who took silver behind Usain Bolt's Olympic-record 9.63 in the 100 m at London 2012?

Yohan Blake had beaten Bolt over 100 m at the Jamaican Olympic trials weeks before London.

Why has the women's 100 m world record of 10.49 been doubted?

The wind gauge read zero on a windy day: a 1995 physics report for the IAAF judged that reading inaccurate, yet as of 2025 it remains the world record.

As of 2025, which sprinter's 10.54 from 2021 was the second-fastest legal women's 100 m ever?

Elaine Thompson-Herah ran it weeks after retaining her Olympic title in Tokyo, yet three years later she missed the Paris Games.

As of 2025, which sprinter was the only person to have won five world 100 m titles?

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the Pocket Rocket, won in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019 and 2022, but at Paris 2024 an injury kept her out of the semi-finals.

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

Noah Lyles was out of the medals at halfway, then stormed through to edge Kishane Thompson; both were timed at 9.79.

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

Justin Gatlin: 13 years later, aged 35, he won the 2017 world 100 m title, with Usain Bolt only third.

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

Gymnastics: he had also battled severe childhood asthma, which kept him homeschooled in his early years.

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

Saint Lucia: Alfred had the fastest start in the final and led all the way to the line.

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

BALCO: she had never failed a drug test, but admitted lying about her drug use and served six months in jail.

Which sprinter skipped the 100 m at the 1924 Olympics because its heats fell on a Sunday?

Eric Liddell switched his sights to the 400 m and won it in Paris, then returned to China as a missionary.

Why was George Simpson's world-first 9.4 for 100 yards never ratified as a record?

He used starting blocks: the IAAF had not yet approved them, yet today its rules make them compulsory in elite sprints.

Which 1912 Olympic 100 m champion returned in 1948 as a US yachting alternate and carried the flag?

Ralph Craig had quit track almost straight after winning both sprints in 1912, and he never actually sailed in London.

Which sprinter competed at seven straight Olympics, from 1980 to 2004?

Merlene Ottey ran her last Games for Slovenia in 2004, after six Games for Jamaica.

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

Toronto's SkyDome: promoters promised each man $500,000 plus $1 million to the winner, but Johnson pulled up citing a thigh injury and Bailey finished alone in 14.99.

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

Chariots of Fire also shows Abrahams hiring a professional coach, Sam Mussabini, to prepare him for Paris.

Who won the 1932 Olympic 100 m after he and the runner-up were both timed at 10.38?

Eddie Tolan had been beaten in both sprints at the US trials, then won both at the Games.

As of 2024, which nation had won the most Olympic 100 m titles, men and women combined?

United States: yet no American man won the title at the four Games from 2008 to 2020.

Which Cuban became only the second man to break 10 seconds for 100 m with electronic timing, in 1977?

Silvio Leonard ran 9.98 in Guadalajara, where thin air at altitude helps sprinters, as it had for the first electronic sub-10.

Which reigning world 100 m champion was banned from the Tokyo Olympics?

Christian Coleman: his ban was for whereabouts failures, drug tests he missed, and it ran past the Tokyo Games.

By 2016, which sprinter had broken the 10-second barrier more times than anyone else?

Asafa Powell had 97 sub-10 races by 2016, yet never won an individual Olympic or world 100 m title.

As of 2025, whose 9.71 for silver at the 2009 Worlds was the fastest non-winning 100 m time?

Tyson Gay: four years later he tested positive for a banned substance and lost all his results from mid-2012.

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

Calvin Smith: weeks later at the first World Championships he took silver in the 100 m but gold in the 200 m.

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

Su Bingtian ran 9.83 in his Tokyo Olympic semi-final, then could not repeat it and finished sixth in the final.

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

Marcell Jacobs: defending his title in Paris three years later, he finished only fifth.

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

Linford Christie: at the 1988 Seoul Olympics he narrowly escaped sanction over traces of a banned stimulant he blamed on ginseng.

Who won the 1980 Olympic 100 m in Moscow?

Allan Wells: he then missed a second gold by the narrowest of margins, taking silver in the 200 m.

As of 2025, who was the only man to run under 10 seconds after turning forty?

Kim Collins: a row with his team's officials got him sent home from the 2012 Olympics before he could race.

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

Maurice Greene: three years earlier he had failed even to make the US team for the Atlanta Olympics.