100 metres

Sprinters, including Torri Edwards (centre), competing in the 100 metres at the 2007 World Championships

This article is about the 100 metres race. For lengths on the order of magnitude of 100 metres, see 1 hectometre.

100 m (one hundred metres) is the shortest outdoor sprint race distance in athletics. The reigning 100 m Olympic champion is often named "the fastest man/woman in the world", even though the world record for the 200 m has had a faster average speed in the men's race since the mid 1990s.

In the past, athletes often competed over 100 yards (91 m) instead of the 100 m, especially in the United States. This shorter distance is now obsolete. Indoors events are normally held over 60 m (sometimes 50 m or 55 m) as few facilities have a 100 m indoor straight.

On an outdoor 400 metres running track, the 100 m is run on the home straight, the start being set on an extension to make it a straight-line race.

stick it to her

Major 100 m races, such as at the Olympic Games, attract much attention, particularly when the world record is thought to be within reach.

Usain Bolt breaking the world and Olympic records at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

The men's world record has been improved upon twelve times since the introduction of electronic timing in 1968, never being surpassed by more than 0.05 s at a time. The current men's world record of 9.69 s is held by Usain Bolt of Jamaica, set at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games final on 16 August 2008. The current women's world record of 10.49 s was set by Florence Griffith-Joyner of the USA, in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 16 July 1988.

Illegal drug use has been seen by some people as a means to gain a competitive edge; in particular, the scandal at the 1988 Summer Olympics when the winner Ben Johnson was stripped of his medal. In 2003 revelations of failed drug tests by sprinting legend Carl Lewis before the 1988 Seoul Olympics also put the validity of his achievements into question.

The 100 m records have been dominated by runners of African descent—indeed, every single male world record holder since the introduction of electronic timing in 1976 has been of West African descent. The president of the Jamaica Urological Society Dr. William Aiken has, among others, forwarded the idea that Afro-Caribbean runners have a genetic benefit derived from the slave trade, with people on the western-most parts of the Caribbean being the progeny of "only the fittest of the fit slaves". Usain Bolt also stated that he believed genetics and the slave trade are factors in the disparity between runners. Aiken said that "This hypothesis in no way minimises the important contributions of good sport administration, excellent coaching and proper nutrition but rather looks at one aspect of the puzzle in attempting to explain the raw athletic talent that seems to be disproportionately high in Jamaicans." However, the hypothesis does not currently have any empirical basis and the scientific community is divided on the issue.

Start

At the start, some athletes play psychological games such as trying to be last to the starting blocks, although direct intimidation would be considered unsportsmanlike. The starter will keep the sprinters in the set position for an unpredictable time of around two seconds and then fire the starting gun.

The time between the gun and first kick against the starting block is measured electronically, via sensors built in the gun and the blocks. A reaction time less than 0.1 s is considered a false start. The 0.1-second interval accounts for the sum of the time it takes for the sound of the starter's pistol to reach the runners' ears, and the time it takes to react to it.

Runners lining up to start the race in Osaka

For many years a sprinter was disqualified if responsible for two false starts individually. However, this rule allowed some major races to be restarted so many times that the sprinters started to lose focus. The current rule, introduced in February 2003, is that, after one false start, anyone responsible for a subsequent false start is disqualified immediately. This rule has led to some sprinters deliberately false-starting to gain a psychological advantage: an individual with a slower reaction time might false-start, forcing the faster starters to wait and be sure of hearing the gun for the subsequent start, thereby losing some of their advantage. In order to avoid such abuse, the IAAF considered in 2005 to change the rule so that the first false starting athlete is immediately disqualified, but many countries objected as it would not leave any room for innocent mistakes. Justin Gatlin commented, "Just a flinch or a leg cramp could cost you a year's worth of work.".

Climatic conditions

Previous world record holder Asafa Powell leading a race.

Climatic conditions are a crucial factor for good performances in the 100 m. Air resistance is the primary climatic factor in sprint performances. A strong head wind is very detrimental to performance, while a tail wind can improve performances significantly. For this reason, a maximum tail wind of 2.0 m/s is allowed for a 100 m performance to be considered eligible for records, or "wind legal". The fastest recorded time for the distance, although excluded from the records because of wind assistance, was 9.68 s by Tyson Gay of the United States on 29 June 2008 during the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon; the tail wind speed was 4.1 m/s, more than double the IAAF legal limit.

Furthermore, sprint athletes perform better at high altitudes because of the thinner air, which provides less air resistance. In theory, the thinner air would also make breathing slightly more difficult (due to the partial pressure of oxygen being lower), but this difference is negligible for sprint distances where all the oxygen needed for the short dash is already in the muscles and bloodstream when the race starts. While there are no limitations on altitude, performances made at altitudes greater than 1000 m above sea level are marked with an "A".

Fastest 100 metres runners

Top thirteen all-time athletes — men

Updated 2 October 2008

Rank	Time	Wind (m/s)	Athlete	Nation	Date	Location
1	9.69	0.0	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	16 August 2008	Beijing
2	9.72	+0.2	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	2 September 2008	Lausanne
3	9.77	+1.6	Tyson Gay	United States	28 June 2008	Eugene
4	9.79	+0.1	Maurice Greene	United States	16 June 1999	Athens
5	9.84	+0.7	Donovan Bailey	Canada	27 July 1996	Atlanta
		+0.2	Bruny Surin	Canada	22 August 1999	Seville
7	9.85	+1.2	Leroy Burrell	United States	6 July 1994	Lausanne
		+0.6	Justin Gatlin	United States	22 August 2004	Athens
		+1.7	Olusoji Fasuba	Nigeria	12 May 2006	Doha
10	9.86	+1.2	Carl Lewis	United States	25 August 1991	Tokyo
		−0.4	Frankie Fredericks	Namibia	3 July 1996	Lausanne
		+1.8	Ato Boldon	Trinidad and Tobago	19 April 1998	Walnut
		+0.6	Francis Obikwelu	Portugal	22 August 2004	Athens

Notes

• Usain Bolt's 9.69 at Beijing on 16 August 2008 is also the Olympic record.
• Justin Gatlin ran 9.77 in Doha on 12 May 2006, which was at the time ratified as a world record. However, the performance was annulled in 2007 after he failed a doping test in April 2006.
• Ben Johnson ran 9.79 at Seoul on 24 September 1988, but he was disqualified after he tested positive for stanozolol after the race. He subsequently admitted to drug use between 1981 and 1988, and his time of 9.83 at Rome on 30 August 1987 was invalidated. Carl Lewis's 9.92 in the Seoul race was therefore recognized as the world record, and his two prior runs of 9.93 were seen as having equalled the previous world record.
• Tim Montgomery's time (9.78 at Paris on 14 September 2002) was invalidated following his indictment in the BALCO scandal on drug use and drug trafficking charges. The time had stood as the world record until Asafa Powell first ran 9.77.
• Ato Boldon has recorded 9.86 seconds on four occasions: the one detailed here is the first.

Top ten all-time athletes — women

Updated 2 October 2008

Rank	Time	Wind (m/s)	Athlete	Nation	Date	Location
1	10.49	0.0	Florence Griffith-Joyner	United States	16 July 1988	Indianapolis
2	10.65[A]	+1.1	Marion Jones	United States	12 September 1998	Johannesburg
3	10.73	+2.0	Christine Arron	France	19 August 1998	Budapest
4	10.74	+1.3	Merlene Ottey	Jamaica	7 September 1996	Milan
5	10.76	+1.7	Evelyn Ashford	United States	22 August 1984	Zürich
6	10.77	+0.9	Irina Privalova	Russia	6 July 1994	Lausanne
		+0.7	Ivet Lalova	Bulgaria	19 June 2004	Plovdiv
8	10.78[A]	+1.0	Dawn Sowell	United States	3 June 1989	Provo
	10.78	+1.8	Torri Edwards	United States	28 June 2008	Eugene
		0.0	Shelly-Ann Fraser	Jamaica	17 August 2008	Beijing

Area records

Updated 9 April 2009.

Area	Men's			Women's
	Time	Athlete	Nation	Time	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	9.85	Olusoji Fasuba	Nigeria	10.90	Glory Alozie	Nigeria
Asia (records)	9.99	Samuel A. Francis	Qatar	10.79	Li Xuemei	China
Europe (records)	9.86	Francis Obikwelu	Portugal	10.73	Christine Arron	France
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	9.69	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	10.49	Florence Griffith-Joyner	United States
Oceania (records)	9.93	Patrick Johnson	Australia	11.12[A]	Melinda Gainsford-Taylor	Australia
South America (records)	10.00[A]	Robson da Silva	Brazil	11.17[A]	Lucimar Aparecida de Moura	Brazil

• ^A Represents a time set at a high altitude.

See also

• 100-yard dash
• National champions 100 metres (men)
• World record progression 100 metres men
• World record progression 100 metres women

External links

• All-time men's 100 m list
• All-time women's 100 m list
• All-time Masters men's 100 m list
• All-time Masters women's 100 m list