Athletics 100 metres
Start of the men's 100 metres final at the 2012 Olympic Games in London
World records
Men	Usain Bolt (JAM) 9.86 (2009)
Women	Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA) 10.49[a] (1988)
Olympic records
Men	Usain Bolt (JAM) 9.79 (2012)
Women	Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM) 10.61 (2021)
World Championship records
Men	Usain Bolt (JAM) 9.60 (2009)
Women	Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) 10.65 (2023)
World junior (U20) records
Men	Issamade Asinga (SUR) 9.89 (2023)
Women	Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) 10.75 (2019)

Start (green) and end (red) points of a 100 metre race, marked on a running track

The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the 100-meter (109.36 yd) dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1928 for women. The inaugural World Championships were in 1983.

The reigning 100 m Olympic or world champion is often named "the fastest man or woman in the world". Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson are the world champions; Marcell Jacobs and Elaine Thompson-Herah are the men's and women's Olympic champions.

On an outdoor 400-metre running track, the 100 m is held on the home straight, with the start usually being set on an extension to make it a straight-line race. There are three instructions given to the runners immediately before and at the beginning of the race: "on your marks", "set", and the firing of the starter's pistol. The runners move to the starting blocks when they hear the 'on your marks' instruction. The following instruction, to adopt the 'set' position, allows them to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles: this will help them to start faster. A race-official then fires the starter's pistol to signal the race beginning and the sprinters stride forwards from the blocks. Sprinters typically reach top speed after somewhere between 50 and 60 m. Their speed then slows towards the finish line.

The 10-second barrier has historically been a barometer of fast men's performances, while the best female sprinters take eleven seconds or less to complete the race. The current men's world record is 9.58 seconds, set by Jamaica's Usain Bolt in 2009, while the women's world record is 10.49 seconds set by American Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.^[a]

Race dynamics

Start

At the start, some athletes play psychological games such as trying to be last to the starting blocks.^[3][4][5]

At high level meets, 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 0.2-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 they take to react to it.

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 next iteration of the rule, introduced in February 2003, meant that one false start was allowed among the field, but anyone responsible for a subsequent false start was disqualified.

This rule 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. To avoid such abuse and to improve spectator enjoyment, the IAAF implemented a further change in the 2010 season – a false starting athlete now receives immediate disqualification.^[6] This proposal was met with objections when first raised in 2005, on the grounds that 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."^[7] The rule had a dramatic impact at the 2011 World Championships, when current world record holder Usain Bolt was disqualified.^[8][9]

Mid-race

Runners usually reach their top speed just past the halfway point of the race and progressively decelerate to the finish. Maintaining that top speed for as long as possible is a primary focus of training for the 100 m.^[10] Pacing and running tactics do not play a significant role in the 100 m, as success in the event depends more on pure athletic qualities and technique.

Finish

The winner, by IAAF Competition Rules, is determined by the first athlete with their torso (not including limbs, head, or neck) over the nearer edge of the finish line.^[11] There is therefore no requirement for the entire body to cross the finish line. When the placing of the athletes is not obvious, a photo finish is used to distinguish which runner was first to cross the line.

Climatic conditions

Climatic conditions, in particular air resistance, can affect performances in the 100 m. 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 metres per second (4.5 mph) is allowed for a 100 m performance to be considered eligible for records, or "wind legal".

Furthermore, sprint athletes perform a better run 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".^[12]

10-second barrier

The 10-second mark had been widely considered a barrier for the 100 metres in men's sprinting. The first man to break the 10 second barrier with automatic timing was Jim Hines at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Since then, over 180 sprinters have run faster than 10 seconds.

Record performances

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

The men's world record has been improved upon twelve times since electronic timing became mandatory in 1977.^[13] The current men's world record of 9.58 s is held by Usain Bolt of Jamaica, set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships final in Berlin, Germany on 16 August 2009, breaking his own previous world record by 0.11 s.^[14] The current women's world record of 10.49 s was set by Florence Griffith-Joyner of the US, at the 1988 United States Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 16 July 1988^[15] breaking Evelyn Ashford's four-year-old world record by .27 seconds. The extraordinary nature of this result and those of several other sprinters in this race raised the possibility of a technical malfunction with the wind gauge which read at 0.0 m/s- a reading which was at complete odds to the windy conditions on the day with high wind speeds being recorded in all other sprints before and after this race as well as the parallel long jump runway at the time of the Griffith-Joyner performance. All scientific studies commissioned by the IAAF and independent organisations since have confirmed there was certainly an illegal tailwind of between 5 m/s – 7 m/s at the time. This should have annulled the legality of this result, although the IAAF has chosen not to take this course of action. The legitimate next best wind legal performance would therefore be Elaine Thompson-Herah's 10.54 second clocking in 2021 at the Prefontaine Classic. Griffith-Joyner's next best legal performance of 10.61 from 1988, would have her third on the all-time list behind Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.60).^[16]

Some records have been marred by prohibited drug use – in particular, the scandal at the 1988 Summer Olympics when the winner, Canadian Ben Johnson was stripped of his medal and world record.

Jim Hines, Ronnie Ray Smith and Charles Greene were the first to break the 10-second barrier in the 100 m, all on 20 June 1968, the Night of Speed. Hines also recorded the first legal electronically timed sub-10 second 100 m in winning the 100 metres at the 1968 Olympics. Bob Hayes ran a wind-assisted 9.91 seconds at the 1964 Olympics.

Continental records

Updated 29 July 2023^[17]

Area	Men					Women
	Time (s)	Wind (m/s)	Season	Athlete	Nation	Time (s)	Wind (m/s)	Season	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	9.77	+1.2	2021	Ferdinand Omanyala	Kenya	10.72	+1.4	2022	Marie-Josée Ta Lou	Ivory Coast
Asia (records)	9.83	+0.9	2021	Su Bingtian	China	10.79	0.0	1997	Li Xuemei	China
Europe (records)	9.80	+0.1	2021	Marcell Jacobs	Italy	10.73	+2.0	1998	Christine Arron	France
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	9.58 WR	+0.9	2009	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	10.49 WR	0.0[a]	1988	Florence Griffith-Joyner	United States
Oceania (records)	9.93	+1.8	2003	Patrick Johnson	Australia	10.96	+2.0	2023	Zoe Hobbs	New Zealand
South America (records)	9.89	+0.8	2023	Issamade Asinga	Suriname	10.91	−0.2	2017	Rosângela Santos	Brazil

Notes

All-time top 25 men

As of September 2023^{[update][18][19]}

Ath.#	Perf.#	Time (s)	Wind (m/s)	Reaction (s)	Athlete	Nation	Date	Place	Ref.
1	1	9.58	+0.9	0.146	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	16 August 2009	Berlin	[20][21]
	2	9.63	+1.5	0.165	Bolt #2		5 August 2012	London	[22]
	3	9.69	±0.0	0.165	Bolt #3		16 August 2008	Beijing	[22]
2	3	9.69	+2.0	0.178	Tyson Gay	United States	20 September 2009	Shanghai	[23][24]
			−0.1	0.142	Yohan Blake	Jamaica	23 August 2012	Lausanne	[25][26]
	6	9.71	+0.9	0.144	Gay #2		16 August 2009	Berlin	[20][21]
	7	9.72	+1.7	0.157	Bolt #4		31 May 2008	New York City	[27]
4	7	9.72	+0.2		Asafa Powell	Jamaica	2 September 2008	Lausanne	[28]
	9	9.74	+1.7	0.137	Powell #2		9 September 2007	Rieti	[29]
5	9	9.74	+0.9	0.161	Justin Gatlin	United States	15 May 2015	Doha	[30][31]
	11	9.75	+1.1		Blake #2		29 June 2012	Kingston
			+1.5	0.179	Blake #3		5 August 2012	London	[22]
			+0.9	0.164	Gatlin #2		4 June 2015	Rome	[32]
			+1.4	0.154	Gatlin #3		9 July 2015	Lausanne	[33]
	15	9.76	+1.8		Bolt #5		3 May 2008	Kingston
			+1.3	0.154	Bolt #6		16 September 2011	Brussels	[34]
			−0.1	0.152	Bolt #7		31 May 2012	Rome	[35]
			+1.4	0.146	Blake #4		30 August 2012	Zürich	[36]
6	15	9.76	+0.6	0.128	Christian Coleman	United States	28 September 2019	Doha	[37][29]
		9.76	+1.2		Trayvon Bromell	United States	18 September 2021	Nairobi	[38]
		9.76	+1.4		Fred Kerley	United States	24 June 2022 Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=100-meter_dash Text je dostupný za podmienok Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 Unported; prípadne za ďalších podmienok. Podrobnejšie informácie nájdete na stránke Podmienky použitia.  Navigácia: Veda > Analytika Antropológia Aplikované vedy Bibliometria Dejiny vedy Encyklopédie Filozofia vedy Forenzné vedy Humanitné vedy Knižničná veda Kryogenika Kryptológia Kulturológia Literárna veda Medzidisciplinárne oblasti Metódy kvantitatívnej analýzy Metavedy Metodika Metodológia vedy Náboženstvo a veda Náučná literatúra Podvody vo vede Popularizácia vedy Potravinárstvo Prírodné vedy Pseudoveda Scientometria Spoločenské vedy Teórie Teatrológia Technické vedy Technika Terminológia Umenie Výskum Veda Veda a technika podľa štátu Veda a technika podľa kontinentu Veda a technika podľa roka Veda v kozme Vedci Vedecká literatúra Vedecké databázy Vedecké experimenty Vedecké konferencie Vedecké metódy Vedecké ocenenia Vedecké organizácie Vedecké parky Vedeckí spisovatelia Vzdelávanie Záhady Príbuzné výrazy: Text je dostupný za podmienok Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 Unported; prípadne za ďalších podmienok. Podrobnejšie informácie nájdete na stránke Podmienky použitia. www.astronomia.sk | www.biologia.sk | www.botanika.sk | www.dejiny.sk | www.economy.sk | www.elektrotechnika.sk | www.estetika.sk | www.farmakologia.sk | www.filozofia.sk | Fyzika | www.futurologia.sk | www.genetika.sk | www.chemia.sk | www.lingvistika.sk | www.politologia.sk | www.psychologia.sk | www.sexuologia.sk | www.sociologia.sk | www.veda.sk I www.zoologia.sk