Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

Summary

Usain Bolt of Jamaica entered as the world record holder, 2012 Olympic champion and the 2015 World Champion. Looking to become the first man to win three Olympic 100 m titles, he was unbeaten and ranked fourth for the season with 9.88 seconds, though injury affected his early season. The 2015 World runner-up and American champion Justin Gatlin was also unbeaten that year and held the fastest time at 9.80, though he too had had an injury in the buildup. Trayvon Bromell (the third man on the 2015 podium) was the second fastest man of the season, while France's Jimmy Vicaut had twice run under 9.9 seconds, but had been beaten at the 2016 European Championships. The 2012 Olympic silver medallist and second fastest man ever Yohan Blake entered for Jamaica, but had not shown strong form since that year.

Hassan Saaid of the Maldives and Rodman Teltull of Palau were the fastest to progress from the preliminary round, both managing under 10.6 seconds. Siueni Filimone qualified but pulled a hamstring at the finish and was unable to compete in the next round. Gatlin was the fastest in the heats at 10.01, followed by Ivorian Ben Youssef Meité, Andre De Grasse of Canada, then Bolt. China's Xie Zhenye was the fifth heat winner under 10.1 seconds, setting a personal best. Vicaut narrowly progressed as a fastest non-qualifier. The most prominent casualties were European champion Churandy Martina, sub-10 Canadian Aaron Brown and sixth-ranked Qatari Femi Ogunode. Keston Bledman, a sub-10 performer was edged out for the final qualifying position by Cejhae Greene, both athletes recording the same time 10.20 rounded to the hundredth.

At the start of the final, the inner lanes got the best start, Trayvon Bromell and Justin Gatlin slightly ahead of Akani Simbine. In lane 6, Bolt came up almost even with Jimmy Vicaut. Trailing the field was Yohan Blake behind Ben Youssef Meïté to his inside. By the middle of the race, Gatlin was starting to create a gap while Bolt was starting to come back at him and moving away from DeGrasse and Vicaut in the second group. With 60 meters gone, Bolt had closed the gap to a few meters from Gatlin and by 70 meters was ahead of the field. This lead grew by several meters in the final 20 meters and Bolt crossed the line in a winning time of 9.81 seconds, to complete a Hat-Trick of 100m titles. Bolt's training partner, Blake had started slowly but was in full gear by the half way stage and had made a serious challenge at the field, however Blake's late rush wasn't quite enough, as DeGrasse took 3rd place, for the bronze. Gatlin finished second, behind Bolt.

Usain Bolt's win broke 2 records; becoming the first person to win the 100 meter race 3 times and also to medal 3 times in the 100 meter race. Previously, only Carl Lewis had won two gold medals in the 100m, a feat which Bolt had matched at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. However, several milliseconds later, Gatlin, also having a place on the podium, joined him in winning three 100m medals; one gold, one silver (for this race), and one bronze, which itself made Gatlin the first man in history to win each medal in the 100 meters.

Gatlin also became the holder of the record for the longest time between their first medal and last medal in the 100m, in terms of years. His first being his gold won at the 2004 Summer Olympics and his silver medal, 12 years later in this race.

The following evening the medals were presented by Valeriy Borzov, IOC member, Ukraine and Sebastian Coe, President of the IAAF.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

The following national records were established during the competition:

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Preliminaries

The preliminary round featured athletes invited to compete who had not achieved the required qualifying standard. Athletes who had achieved the standard received a bye into the first round proper. Qualification rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to Round 1.

Round 1

Qualification rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 8 fastest (q) advance to the Semifinals.