The women's 100 metres competition at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The event was held at the

University Olympic Stadium A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

on October 14–15. The race was won by defending champion

Wyomia Tyus Wyomia Tyus (pronunciation: ''why-o-mi''; born August 29, 1945) is a retired American track and field sprinter, and the first person to retain the Olympic title in the 100 m (a feat since duplicated by Carl Lewis, Gail Devers, Shelly-Ann Frase ...

. She became the first person to defend the championship at 100 metres, a feat later duplicated by

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. Lewis was a dominant sprinter and lo ...

Gail Devers Yolanda Gail Devers ( ; born November 19, 1966) is an American retired track and field sprinter who competed in the 60 metres, 60 m hurdles, 100 m and 100 m hurdles. One of the greatest and most decorated female sprinters of all time, she was ...

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (''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 metres, 200 m. She is widely regarded as ...

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt (; born 21 August 1986) is a Jamaican retired sprinter who is widely regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time. He is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist and the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, ...

and

Elaine Thompson-Herah Elaine Sandra-Lee Thompson-Herah (born 28 June 1992) is a Jamaican sprinter who competes in the 60 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres. Regarded as one of the greatest sprinters of all time, she is a five-time Olympic champion, the fastest wom ...

. Director

Bud Greenspan Jonah J. "Bud" Greenspan (September 18, 1926December 25, 2010) was an American film director, writer, and producer known for his sports documentaries. Career Greenspan was born in New York City. He overcame a lisp in adolescence and went into sp ...

filmed Tyus casually dancing behind her starting blocks before the Olympic final. When interviewed later she said she was doing the " Tighten Up" to stay loose. American commentator Dwight Stones suggests this intimidated her opponents. In the final, American teenager Margaret Bailes gained a step advantage at the gun. That quickly disappeared as Tyus seized control of the race. The chase was on. The next chasers appeared to be her American teammate Barbara Ferrell and Australian teenager

Raelene Boyle Raelene Ann Boyle (born 24 June 1951) is an Australian retired athlete, who represented Australia at three Olympic Games as a Sprint (running), sprinter, winning three silver medals, and was named one of 100 Australian Living Treasures, Nation ...

. Coming on strong toward the finish was Polish veteran Irena Kirszenstein. Tyus dipped at the finish, but there was nobody near her. Ferrell and Boyle were escorted to the holding area, but Officials reading the new

fully automatic time Fully automatic timing (abbreviated FAT) is a form of race timing in which the clock is automatically activated by the starting device, and the finish time is either automatically recorded, or timed by analysis of a photo finish. The system is ...

system corrected the results to declare Kirszenstein the bronze medalist. Tyus set the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

while Boyle set the List of world junior record in fourth place. Tyus was credited with 11.0 hand timed, breaking the tie at 11.1 with several women in this race. Two years later, Chi Cheng, 7th place in this race, equalled her time. Her automatic time of 11.07 was the first noted automatic time record of this event. In the subsequent Olympics, that time was equalled by

Renate Stecher Renate Stecher (, ; née Meißner, born 12 May 1950) is a German (former East German) sprint runner and a triple Olympic champion. She held 34 world records and was the first woman to run 100 metres within 11 seconds. Biography Born as Renate ...

, but Tyus' time was downgraded to 11.08. By the time fully automatic timing became mandatory, January 1, 1977, Annegret Richter's 11.01 from the 1976 Olympics had displaced them.

Competition format

The women's 100m competition consisted of heats (Round 1), quarterfinals, semifinals and a Final. The five fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the quarterfinals. The four fastest runners from each of the quarterfinal races advanced to the semifinals, where again the top four from each race advance to the final.

Records

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

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Heat 5

Heat 6

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Quarterfinal 2

Quarterfinal 3

Quarterfinal 4

Semi-finals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final

References

External links

Official Olympic Report
''la84foundation.org''. Retrieved August 15, 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics - Women's 100 metres Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics 100 metres at the Olympics 1968 in women's athletics Women's events at the 1968 Summer Olympics