The women's

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

competition at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, United Kingdom was held at the

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on 3–4 August. In the preliminary round,

Toea Wisil Toea Wisil (1 January 1988) is an athlete from Papua New Guinea who specializes in sprints. She was selected as her nation's flag bearer at the 2012 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations. In her race, she impressed American TV announcer Ato Bol ...

was the most impressive, winning with a relaxed 11.60 into a -1.6 mps wind, while Noor Hussain Al-Malki's Olympic experience lasted just the first steps out of the blocks before she pulled up. Qualifying into the next rounds, Wisil beat triple world champion

Allyson Felix Allyson Michelle Felix (born November 18, 1985) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters. She specialized in the 200 meters from 2003 to 2013, then gradually shifted to the 400 me ...

and the rest of her heat out of the blocks and came with in .05 of reaching the semi-final round, from the previously unqualified preliminary round.

Carmelita Jeter Carmelita Jeter ( , born November 24, 1979) is a retired American sprinter, who competed in the 60 metres, 100 m and 200 m. For over a decade, between 2009 and 2021, Jeter held the title as "Fastest woman alive" after running a 100 m personal be ...

ran hard for her second best time of the season to lead the round. Her training partner

Blessing Okagbare Blessing Oghnewresem Okagbare-Otegheri (born 9 October 1988) is a former Nigerian track and field athlete who specialized in Long jump and sprints. She is an Olympic and World Championships medalist in the long jump, and a world medalist in th ...

left an impression by outrunning

Tianna Madison Tianna Bartoletta née Madison (born August 30, 1985) is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the long jump and short sprinting events. She is a two-time Olympian with three gold medals. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she placed ...

for the second best time. Defending champion

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Order of Distinction, OD, Order of Jamaica , OJ (née Fraser; born December 27, 1986) is a Jamaican track and field Sprint (running), sprinter competing in the 60 metres, 60 metres, 100 metres, 100 m and 200 m ...

exerted minimal effort to secure the fourth best qualifying time. The semi-final round qualifiers was virtual mirror image of the previous evening's heats, the same top athletes with Jeter again posting a 10.83 and 11.01 the number 8 time.

Ezinne Okparaebo Ezinne Okparaebo (born 3 March 1988) is a Norwegian sprinter. She is Scandinavia's fastest woman ever over 60m and 100m. Okparaebo has won the 100m national title 13 times. She moved to Norway as a nine-year old and grew up in Ammerud. She vis ...

's Norwegian national record 11.10 left her two places out of qualifying. In the final, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce led from the gun. She was quickest from the blocks with Jeter in close pursuit, and she ultimately leaned at the finish line for a narrow victory to defend her title.

Veronica Campbell-Brown Veronica Campbell-Brown CD ( Campbell; born 15 May 1982) is a retired Jamaican track and field sprinter, who specialized in the 100 and 200 meters.

added to her career medal haul with the bronze medal. Jeter's time was the fastest non-winning time in Olympic history. In fact, all non-winning places 2-4 were the fastest for that place. This was the second race in history to place 5 runners under 10.90 (the other being the 1992 Olympic final). Only the third in history to place two under 10.80 (the others being the 1999 World Championships and the 2009 World Championships 100m final).

Competition format

The women's 100 m competition started with a preliminary round consisting of athletes who did not achieve the minimum qualifying standards. The top ten competitors from the preliminary round then joined the remaining competitors in the next round, the heats. The top 3 fastest competitors from each race of the seven heats qualified for the semifinals along with the three fastest overall non-qualifiers. A total of eight competitors qualified for the final from the semifinals.

Records

, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

Schedule

All times are

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC±00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and ev ...

(

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)

Results

Preliminaries

Qual. rule: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.

Preliminary heat 1

Preliminary heat 2

Preliminary heat 3

Preliminary heat 4

Heats

*81 entrants as of 27 July 2012.Entry List by Event
IAAF (2012-07-27). Retrieved on 2012-07-29. Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 3 fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Wind:
Heat 3: +1.5 m/s Women's 100m Heat Start

Heat 4

Heat 5

Heat 6

Heat 7

Semifinals

Qual. rule: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Semifinal 3

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Women's 100 metres Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics 100 metres at the Olympics 2012 in women's athletics Women's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics