Athletics At The 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 Metres
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The men'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 contested at ...
event at the
2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
took place on 31 July and 1 August 2021 at the
Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...
. 84 athletes were expected to compete; 27 nations used universality places to enter athletes in addition to the 56 qualifying through standard time or ranking (23 universality places were used in 2016). 78 athletes from 59 nations competed.
Marcell Jacobs Lamont Marcell Jacobs Jr. (; born 26 September 1994) is an Italian track and field sprinter and former long jumper. He is the 2020 Olympic 100 metres champion, the 2022 60 metres world champion, the 2022 and 2024 European 100 metres champi ...
won the gold medal, establishing twice, semifinal and final, the new European record, as well as collecting Italy's first medal in the men's 100 metres. The United States extended its podium streak in the event to six Games with Fred Kerley's silver - after he placed only third at the U.S. trials. Canadian Andre De Grasse won his second consecutive bronze medal in the 100 metres, while running a personal best. With
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, ...
retired, Jamaica's three Games gold medal streak ended.


Summary

Former
400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...
specialist (ranked #8 of all time) USA's Fred Kerley won the first semi-final, with defending bronze medalist Andre De Grasse from Canada qualifying as second. In the second semi-final American world leader and gold medal favourite
Trayvon Bromell Trayvon Jaquez Bromell (born July 10, 1995) is an American professional track and field athlete specializing in sprinting events. He won bronze medals in the 100 meters at the 2015 and 2022 World Championships. Bromell was the 2016 World indo ...
was pipped in a photofinish by Enoch Adegoke of Nigeria, who came in second behind
Zharnel Hughes Zharnel Hughes (born 13 July 1995) is an Anguilla-born British Sprint (running), sprinter who specialises in the 100 metres and 200 metres. Born and raised in the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, he has competed internationally for Great ...
of Great Britain, the current European Champion. In the third semi-final China's
Su Bingtian Su Bingtian (; born 29 August 1989) is a professional Chinese track and field athlete specializing in the 100 metres event. He was the first-ever Asian-born sprinter to break the 10-second barrier and remains the only Asian sprinter to ever bre ...
got a blistering start and held off the group to improve his own Asian record by 0.08 to 9.83, concurrently setting the unofficial 60 metres world best. Two thousandths behind, Ronnie Baker from USA also improved his personal best, both men timed at 9.83 and tied for #12 on the all time list. Italy's
Marcell Jacobs Lamont Marcell Jacobs Jr. (; born 26 September 1994) is an Italian track and field sprinter and former long jumper. He is the 2020 Olympic 100 metres champion, the 2022 60 metres world champion, the 2022 and 2024 European 100 metres champi ...
, who had arrived at the event as the
60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At indoor events, the 60 metres is run on lanes set out in the mi ...
world leader, came in a close third and was timed at 9.84, setting the European record, improving his PB by 0.1 and equalling 1996 champion
Donovan Bailey Donovan Bailey (born December 16, 1967) is a retired Jamaican-Canadian sprinter. He once held the world record for the 100 metres. He recorded a time of 9.84 seconds to become Olympic champion in 1996. He was the first Canadian to legally br ...
for #14. Jacobs qualified for the final on time along with the second pre-Olympics favorite, African record holder Akani Simbine of South Africa who qualified with 9.90. Bromell, having run a time of 10.00, was eliminated in what was considered a significant upset. The center lanes of the final included the three heat winners Su, Kerley and Hughes and fastest second Baker. Hughes bolted early for a clear
false start In sports, a false start is a disallowed start, usually due to a movement by a participant before (or in some cases after) being signaled or otherwise permitted by the rules to start. Depending on the sport and the event, a false start can resu ...
, with all runners except Jacobs sprinting from the blocks after him, and was disqualified. The second start was clean: Su could not repeat his great semi-final start, with Kerley having the fastest reaction time and leading the race until about the 70 m mark, where he was passed by a resurgent Jacobs. From there, Jacobs opened up space on the group, with Kerley staying the closest as Adegoke pulled up lame, while De Grasse, after running last, accelerated and passed Baker and Simbine at the 90 metres mark to take his second bronze medal in the event. Jacobs had the clear win over Kerley and was immediately cheered by
Gianmarco Tamberi Gianmarco Tamberi (; born 1 June 1992) is an Italian high jumper, previous Olympic champion (2020), European outdoor champion (2024) and World outdoor champion (2023). He won the 2021 Diamond League crown, becoming the first ever Italian to do ...
, who had just won the high jump event just 13 minutes earlier. The two hugged and celebrated an iconic moment in Italian Olympic history. Jacobs was timed at 9.80 for an unexpected Olympic victory. This marked his second improvement of the European record in just a few hours, tying Steve Mullings for #10 of all time. Kerley and De Grasse both improved their wind-legal personal best results to 9.84 and 9.89 respectively.


Background

This was the twenty-ninth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nauru, the Refugee Olympic Team, Slovakia, and Tajikistan each made their men's 100 metres debut. The United States made its 28th appearance in the event, the most of any country, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.


Qualification

A
National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...
(NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 100 metres event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period (the limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress). The qualifying standard is 10.05 seconds. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the
IAAF World Rankings The World Athletics Rankings are an individual athlete ranking system for the sport of athletics, managed by World Athletics. It is used to establish the number one athlete within an athletics event and to partially determine qualification into t ...
pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 56 is reached. The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the
IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
. Only outdoor meets were eligible for the sprints and short hurdles, including the 100 metres. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period. Races with wind above 2.0 m/s were not included. NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 100 metres. Entry number: 56 (17 from Ranking) + 27 Universality and 1 Invitational. Some sprinters, like Aaron Brown, have been withdrawn (see note #11).


Competition format

The event continued to use the preliminaries plus three main rounds format introduced in 2012. Athletes not meeting the qualification standard (that is, were entered through universality places) competed in the preliminaries; those who met the standard started in the first round.


Records

Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records were as follows: The following national records were established during the competition:


Schedule

All times are
Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...
( UTC+09:00)
The men's 100 metres took place over two consecutive days.


Results


Preliminaries

Qualification Rules: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 1 fastest (q) advance to Round 1.


Preliminary heat 1


Preliminary heat 2


Preliminary heat 3


Round 1

Qualification Rules: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 3 fastest (q) advance to the semifinals.


Heat 1


Heat 2


Heat 3


Heat 4


Heat 5


Heat 6


Heat 7


Semifinals

Qualification Rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the Final.


Semifinal 1


Semifinal 2


Semifinal 3


Final


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Men's 100 metres Men's 100 metres
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
Men's events at the 2020 Summer Olympics