Men's 100 metres world record progression

The first record in the 100 metres for men (athletics) was recognised by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as World Athletics, in 1912.

IAAF-ratified world record progression for the men's 100 m. In 1977 the IAAF began requiring fully automatic timing, accounting for both the increase in measured times and the decrease in measurement uncertainty.

As of 21 June 2011^[update], the IAAF had ratified 67 records in the event, not including rescinded records.^[1]

Unofficial progression before the IAAF

Time	Athlete	Nationality	Location of races	Date
10.8	Luther Cary	United States	Paris, France	July 4, 1891
	Cecil Lee	United Kingdom	Brussels, Belgium	September 25, 1892
	Étienne De Ré	Belgium	Brussels, Belgium	August 4, 1893
	L. Atcherley	United Kingdom	Frankfurt/Main, Germany	April 13, 1895
	Harry Beaton	United Kingdom	Rotterdam, Netherlands	August 28, 1895
	Harald Anderson-Arbin	Sweden	Helsingborg, Sweden	August 9, 1896
	Isaac Westergren	Sweden	Gävle, Sweden	September 11, 1898
		Sweden	Gävle, Sweden	September 10, 1899
	Frank Jarvis	United States	Paris, France	July 14, 1900
	Walter Tewksbury	United States	Paris, France	July 14, 1900
	Carl Ljung	Sweden	Stockholm, Sweden	September 23, 1900
	Walter Tewksbury	United States	Philadelphia, United States	October 6, 1900
	André Passat	France	Bordeaux, France	June 14, 1903
	Louis Kuhn	Switzerland	Bordeaux, France	June 14, 1903
	Harald Grønfeldt	Denmark	Aarhus, Denmark	July 5, 1903
	Eric Frick	Sweden	Jönköping, Sweden	August 9, 1903
10.6	Knut Lindberg	Sweden	Gothenburg, Sweden	August 26, 1906
10.5	Emil Ketterer	Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany	July 9, 1911
	Richard Rau	Germany	Braunschweig, Germany	August 13, 1911
	Richard Rau	Germany	Munich, Germany	May 12, 1912
	Erwin Kern	Germany	Munich, Germany	May 26, 1912

IAAF record progression

	Ratified
	Not ratified
	Ratified but later rescinded

"Wind" in these tables refers to wind assistance, the velocity of the wind parallel to the runner - positive values are from the starting line towards the finish line, negative are from the finish line towards the starting line, 0 is no wind in either direction, and all values are measured in metres per second. Any wind perpendicular to the runners (from left to right, right to left, or up to down or down to up, although the conditions of the track generally preclude those wind directions) is ignored and not listed.

"Auto" refers to automatic timing, and for the purposes of these lists, indicates auto times which were either also taken for hand-timed records, or were rounded to the tenth or hundredth of a second (depending on the rounding rules then in effect) for the official record time.

Records 1912–1976

Time	Wind	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date	Ref
10.6			Donald Lippincott	United States	Stockholm, Sweden	July 6, 1912	[2]
			Jackson Scholz			September 16, 1920	[2]
10.4			Charley Paddock		Redlands, USA	April 23, 1921	[2]
	0.0		Eddie Tolan		Stockholm, Sweden	August 8, 1929	[2]
					Copenhagen, Denmark	August 25, 1929	[2]
10.3			Percy Williams	Canada	Toronto, Canada	August 9, 1930	[2]
	0.4	10.38	Eddie Tolan	United States	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932	[2]
			Ralph Metcalfe		Budapest, Hungary	August 12, 1933	[2]
			Eulace Peacock		Oslo, Norway	August 6, 1934	[2]
			Chris Berger	Netherlands	Amsterdam, Netherlands	August 26, 1934	[2]
			Ralph Metcalfe	United States	Osaka, Japan	September 15, 1934	[2]
	2.0				Dairen, Japan	September 23, 1934	[2]
	2.5		Takayoshi Yoshioka	Japan	Tokyo, Japan	June 15, 1935	[2]
10.2	1.2		Jesse Owens	United States	Chicago, USA	June 20, 1936	[2]
10.3	0.5		Lennart Strandberg	Sweden	Malmö, Sweden	September 26, 1936	[note 1][3]: 26
10.2	−0.9		Harold Davis	United States	Compton, USA	June 6, 1941	[2]
	0.7		Lloyd LaBeach	Panama	Fresno, USA	May 15, 1948	[2]
		10.35	Barney Ewell	United States	Evanston, United States	July 9, 1948	[2]
	0.0		McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	Belgrade, Yugoslavia	August 25, 1951	[2]
	1.1		Heinz Fütterer	West Germany	Yokohama, Japan	October 31, 1954	[2]
	0.9		Bobby Morrow	United States	Houston, USA	May 19, 1956	[2]
	−1.0		Ira Murchison		Compton, USA	June 1, 1956	[2]
	0.0		Bobby Morrow		Bakersfield, USA	June 22, 1956	[2]
	−1.3		Ira Murchison		Los Angeles, USA	June 29, 1956	[2]
	−0.4		Bobby Morrow
10.1	0.7		Willie Williams		Berlin, Germany	August 3, 1956	[2]
	1.0		Ira Murchison			August 4, 1956	[2]
	1.5		Leamon King		Ontario, USA	October 20, 1956	[2]
	0.9				Santa Ana, USA	October 27, 1956	[2]
	1.3		Ray Norton		San Jose, USA	April 18, 1959	[2]
10.0	0.9	10.25	Armin Hary	West Germany	Zürich, Switzerland	June 21, 1960	[2]
	1.8		Harry Jerome	Canada	Saskatoon, Canada	July 15, 1960	[2]
	0.0		Horacio Esteves	Venezuela	Caracas, Venezuela	August 15, 1964	[2]
	1.3	10.06	Bob Hayes	United States	Tokyo, Japan	October 15, 1964	[2]
	2.0	10.17	Jim Hines	United States	Modesto, USA	May 27, 1967	[2]
	1.8		Enrique Figuerola	Cuba	Budapest, Hungary	June 17, 1967	[2]
	0.0		Paul Nash	South Africa	Krugersdorp, South Africa	April 2, 1968	[2]
	1.1		Oliver Ford	United States	Albuquerque, USA	May 31, 1968	[2]
	2.0	10.20	Charles Greene		Sacramento, USA	June 20, 1968	[2]
	2.0	10.28	Roger Bambuck	France
9.9	0.8	10.03	Jim Hines	United States			[2]
	0.8	10.14	Ronnie Ray Smith
	0.9	10.10	Charles Greene
	0.3	9.95	Jim Hines		Mexico City, Mexico	October 14, 1968	[2]
	0.0		Eddie Hart		Eugene, USA	July 1, 1972	[2]
	0.0		Rey Robinson
	1.3		Steve Williams		Los Angeles, USA	June 21, 1974	[2]
	1.7		Silvio Leonard	Cuba	Ostrava, Czechoslovakia	June 5, 1975	[2]
	0.0		Steve Williams	United States	Siena, Italy	July 16, 1975	[2]
	−0.2				Berlin, Germany	August 22, 1975	[2]
	0.7				Gainesville, USA	March 27, 1976	[2]
	0.7		Harvey Glance		Columbia, USA	April 3, 1976	[2]
					Baton Rouge, USA	May 1, 1976	[2]
	1.7		Don Quarrie	Jamaica	Modesto, USA	May 22, 1976	[2]

The first manual time of 9.9 seconds was recorded for Bob Hayes in the final of the 100 metres at the 1964 Olympics. Hayes' official time of 10.0 seconds was determined by rounding down the electronic time of 10.06 to the nearest tenth of a second, giving the appearance of a manual time. This method was unique to the Olympics of 1964 and 1968, and the officials at the track recorded Hayes' time as 9.9 seconds.^[4]

Records since 1977

Since 1975, the IAAF has accepted separate automatically electronically timed records for events up to 400 metres. Starting on January 1, 1977, the IAAF has required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second for these events.^[2]

Jim Hines' October 1968 Olympic gold medal run was the fastest recorded fully electronic 100 metre race up to that date, at 9.95 seconds.^[2] Track and Field News has compiled an unofficial list of automatically timed records starting with the 1964 Olympics and Bob Hayes' gold medal performance there. Those marks are included in the progression.

The event is linked on some of the dates.

Time	Wind	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date	Notes[note 2]	Duration of record
10.06	1.3		Bob Hayes	United States	Tokyo, Japan	October 15, 1964	[5]	3 years, 8 months and 5 days
10.03	0.8		Jim Hines		Sacramento, USA	June 20, 1968	[5]	3 months and 23 days
10.02	2.0		Charles Greene		Mexico City, Mexico	October 13, 1968	A[5]	1 day
9.95	0.3		Jim Hines	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 14, 1968	OR, A[2]	14 years, 8 months and 19 days
9.93	1.4		Calvin Smith		Colorado Springs, USA	July 3, 1983	A[2]	4 years, 1 month and 27 days
9.83	1.0		Ben Johnson	Canada	Rome, Italy	August 30, 1987	[note 3]	0 days
9.93	1.0		Carl Lewis	United States	Rome, Italy	August 30, 1987	[5][6][note 4]	11 months and 18 days
	1.1				Zürich, Switzerland	August 17, 1988	[2]	1 month and 7 days
9.79	1.1		Ben Johnson	Canada	Seoul, South Korea	September 24, 1988	[note 3][2]	0 days
9.92	1.1		Carl Lewis	United States	Seoul, South Korea	September 24, 1988	OR[note 3][2]	2 years, 8 months and 21 days
9.90	1.9		Leroy Burrell		New York, USA	June 14, 1991	[2]	2 months and 11 days
9.86	1.2 [a]		Carl Lewis		Tokyo, Japan	August 25, 1991	[2]	2 years, 10 months and 11 days
9.85	1.2	9.848	Leroy Burrell		Lausanne, Switzerland	July 6, 1994	[2]	2 years and 21 days
9.84	0.7	9.835	Donovan Bailey	Canada	Atlanta, USA	July 27, 1996	OR[2][7]	2 years, 10 months and 20 days
9.79	0.1		Maurice Greene	United States	Athens, Greece	June 16, 1999	[2]	3 years, 2 months and 29 days
9.78	2.0		Tim Montgomery		Paris, France	September 14, 2002	[8][note 5]	2 years and 9 months
9.77	1.6	9.768	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	Athens, Greece	June 14, 2005	[2]	10 months and 28 days
	1.7	9.766	Justin Gatlin	United States	Doha, Qatar	May 12, 2006	[5][9][note 6]	30 days
	1.5	9.763	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	Gateshead, United Kingdom	June 11, 2006	[2]	2 months and 7 days
	1.0	9.762			Zürich, Switzerland	August 18, 2006	[2]	1 year and 22 days
9.74	1.7	9.735			Rieti, Italy	September 9, 2007	[1][10]	8 months and 22 days
9.72	1.7	9.715	Usain Bolt		New York, USA	May 31, 2008	[2]	2 months and 16 days
9.69	0.0	9.683			Beijing, China	August 16, 2008	OR[2]	1 year
9.58	0.9	9.572			Berlin, Germany	August 16, 2009	CR[1][11][12]	15 years, 3 months and 5 days

Low-altitude record progression 1968–1987

The IAAF considers marks set at high altitude as acceptable for record consideration. However, high altitude can significantly assist sprint performances.^[13] One estimate suggests times in the 200 m sprint can be assisted by between 0.09s and 0.14s with the maximum allowable tailing wind of 2.0 m/s, and gain 0.3s at altitudes over 2000m.^[14] For this reason, unofficial low-altitude record lists have been compiled.

After the IAAF started to recognise only electronic times in 1977, the then-current record and subsequent record were both set at altitude. It was not until 1987 that the world record was equalled or surpassed by a low-altitude performance. The following progression of low-altitude records therefore starts with Hines's low-altitude "record" when the IAAF started to recognise only electronic timing in 1977, and continues to Lewis's low-altitude performance that equalled the high-altitude world record in 1987. (Ben Johnson's 9.95 run in 1986 and 9.83 run in 1987 are omitted.)

Time	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
10.03	Jim Hines[5]	United States	Sacramento, USA	June 20, 1968
10.03	Silvio Leonard[5]	Cuba	Havana, Cuba	September 13, 1977
10.02	James Sanford[5]	United States	Westwood, USA	May 11, 1980
10.00	Carl Lewis[5]		Dallas, USA	May 16, 1981
10.00			Modesto, USA	May 15, 1982
9.97			Modesto, USA	May 14, 1983
9.97	Calvin Smith[5]		Zürich, Switzerland	August 24, 1983
9.96	Mel Lattany[5]		Athens, USA	May 5, 1984
9.93	Carl Lewis[5]		Rome, Italy	August 30, 1987

See also

• Women's 100 metres world record progression
• Men's 200 metres world record progression
• 100-yard dash

Notes

1. per IAAF profile; 1.0 m/s per IAAF statistic handbook

1. Lennart Strandberg ran 10.3 to tie the then-extant world record on September 26, 1936, and this was ratified as a world record. On February 28, 1938, the IAAF ratified Jesse Owens' 10.2 from June 20, 1936, meaning Strandberg's mark, achieved after Owens', was rescinded as a record.
2. "A" stands for records set more than 1,000 metres above sea level, "OR" stands for Olympic record, "CR" stands for World Championships record
3. Ben Johnson's time of 9.79 on September 24, 1988 was disallowed and never ratified as a record as he tested positive for stanozolol after the race. Johnson subsequently admitted to steroid use between 1981 and 1988, and his world record of 9.83 set on August 30, 1987 was rescinded by the IAAF Council in September 1989.(Track and Field News, November 1989, vol. 42, #11, p. 37)
4. Carl Lewis's times of 9.93 were deemed by the IAAF to have equalled the world record after Ben Johnson's 9.83 time was rescinded, but were never ratified as world records, and his time of 9.92 to win the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics after Johnson was disqualified was recognized as the world record from January 1, 1990.
5. Tim Montgomery's time of 9.78 on September 14, 2002 was rescinded after a 2005 ruling on his involvement with BALCO scandal ordered his results from 2001-2005 struck from the records and ordered him to forfeit medals and prizes from that time. By that time, however, it had been surpassed by Asafa Powell.
6. Justin Gatlin was briefly credited with a new world record time of 9.76, but five days later the IAAF announced that the official timers, Tissot Timing, had discovered Gatlin's time of 9.766 had erroneously been rounded down to the nearest hundredth instead of rounded up. This time instead made Gatlin co-world record holder with Asafa Powell, but this was rescinded in 2007 after Gatlin failed a doping test.

References

1. "IAAF World Championships: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Daegu 2011" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2011. pp. Pages 595, 596. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
2. "12th IAAF World Championships In Athletics: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Berlin 2009" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2009. pp. Pages 546, 547. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 29, 2011. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
3. Hymans, Richard; Matrahazi, Imre. "IAAF World Records Progression" (PDF) (2015 ed.). International Association of Athletics Federations. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
4. revisionist history: men's 100 WR. Track and Field News. November 1, 2013
5. "Stat Corner: 100 WR Progression". Track & Field News. 61 (7): 55. July 2008.
6. Track and Field News, November 1989, vol. 42, #11, p. 37
7. "10m Splits for Various 100m Final Events". Myweb.lmu.edu. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
8. "100m World Record falls to Montgomery - 9.78!". IAAF. September 14, 2002. Archived from the original on September 12, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
9. Frank Litsky (May 18, 2006). "Gatlin Must Share 100-Meter Record". New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
10. "Progression of IAAF World Records, 2015 Edition" (PDF). 2015. p. 33. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
11. "12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics - Berlin 2009 - Bolt again! 9.58 World record in Berlin!". Berlin.iaaf.org. August 16, 2009. Archived from the original on June 12, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2010.
12. "World records set at Berlin World Championships have been ratified". iaaf.org. September 30, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2010.
13. "Effect of wind speed and altitude on sprint times". www.brianmac.co.uk. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
14. "IngentaConnect Modeling wind and altitude effects in the 200 m sprint". www.ingentaconnect.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010.