Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres


The men's 100 metres was an event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. There were a total number of 81 participating athletes from 66 nations, with ten qualifying heats. Each nation was limited to 3 athletes per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress.
The gold medal was won by Great Britain's Linford Christie, who had originally won the bronze medal in 1988 but was elevated to silver following the disqualification of original gold medalist Ben Johnson for using stanozolol. Silver went to Namibia's Frankie Fredericks, who also finished second in the 200 metres in Barcelona, while Dennis Mitchell of the United States of America won the bronze. Namibia had never competed in the men's 100 metres before, so Fredericks's medal was that nation's first in the event; it was also the first medal by an African country in the event since 1908.

Background

This was the twenty-second time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. The gold and bronze medalists from 1988, Americans Carl Lewis and Calvin Smith, did not return, but British silver medalist Linford Christie did. So did fourth-place finisher American Dennis Mitchell, Brazilian fifth-place finisher Robson da Silva, Jamaican seventh-place finisher Ray Stewart, and the disqualified original champion, Canadian Ben Johnson. World championship runner-up American Leroy Burrell was also present in 1992.
The Cayman Islands, the Central African Republic, the Cook Islands, Cyprus, Gabon, Grenada, Honduras, Mauritania, Namibia, and Niger appeared in the event for the first time. It was also the only appearance of the Unified Team, following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Romania appeared independently for the first time since 1928. The United States made its 21st appearance in the event, most of any country, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format

The event retained the same basic four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1968, was used again to ensure that the quarterfinals and subsequent rounds had exactly 8 runners per heat; this time, the system was used in only the preliminaries.
The first round consisted of 10 heats, each with 8 athletes except the last. The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next two fastest runners overall. This made 32 quarterfinalists, who were divided into 4 heats of 8 runners. The top four runners in each quarterfinal advanced, with no "fastest loser" places. The 16 semifinalists competed in two heats of 8, with the top four in each semifinal advancing to the eight-man final.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1992 Summer Olympics.
World Record9.86 Carl LewisTokyo August 25, 1991
Olympic Record9.92 Carl LewisSeoul September 24, 1988

Results

Heats

Heat 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Leroy Burrell10.21
2Satoru Inoue10.48
3Jean-Olivier Zirignon10.55
4Abdulieh Janneh10.71
5Hassane Illiassou10.73
6Khalid Juma Juma10.80
7Jaime Zelaya11.02
8Claude Roumain11.07

Heat 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Dennis Mitchell10.21
2Vitaliy Savin10.29
3Samuel Nchinda10.41
4Gustavo Envela Mahua10.65
5Florencio Aguilar10.73
6Dominique Canti10.80
—Charles Tayot
—Andreas Berger

Heat 3

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Linford Christie10.48
2Arnaldo da Silva10.55
3Daniel Sangouma10.63
4Ato Boldon10.77
5Hussain Arif10.83
6Fabian Muyaba10.84
7Pascal Dangbo11.03
8Henry Daley Colphon11.11

Heat 4

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Frankie Fredericks10.29
2Marcus Adam10.57
3Atlee Mahorn10.64
4Boevi Lawson10.69
5Sriyantha Dissanayake10.87
6Gabriel Simeon11.10
7Adam Hassan Sakak11.12
8Robinson Stewart11.20

Heat 5

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Ray Stewart10.61
2Patrick Stevens10.63
3John Myles-Mills10.64
4Neville Hodge10.71
5Henrico Atkins10.83
6Golam Ambia11.06
7Gabrieli Qoro11.14
8Mark Sherwin11.53

Heat 6

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Davidson Ezinwa10.31
2Ben Johnson10.55
3Eric Akogyiram10.60
4Juan Trapero10.64
5Joel Otim10.84
6Soryba Diakité11.10
7Ould Nouroudine11.22
8Ahmed Shageef11.36

Heat 7

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Olapade Adeniken10.36
2Talal Mansour Al-Rahim10.43
3Stefan Burkart10.67
4Visut Watanasin10.72
5André da Silva10.78
6Valentin Ngbogo10.79
7Bernard Manana11.35
8Sitthixay Sacpraseuth12.02

Heat 8

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Chidi Imoh10.47
2Daniel Cojocaru10.57
3Sanusi Turay10.58
4Kennedy Ondieki10.60
5Kareem Streete-Thompson10.78
6David Nkoua10.96
7Emery Gill11.51
8Ahmed Al-Moamari Bashir11.58

Heat 9

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Max Morinière10.36
2Bruny Surin10.37
3Emmanuel Tuffour10.45
4Tatsuo Sugimoto10.56
5Ku Wai Ming10.74
6Toluta'u Koula10.85
7Afonso Ferraz11.32
8Fletcher Wamilee11.41

Heat 10

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Robson da Silva10.24
2Mark Witherspoon10.27
3Pavel Galkin10.43
4Yiannis Zisimides10.51
5Shinji Aoto10.54
6Charles Louis Seck10.57
7Ousmane Diarra10.87
8Bothloko Shebe10.94
—Patrice Traoré Zeba

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Mark Witherspoon10.19
2Robson da Silva10.29
3Talal Mansour Al-Rahim10.32
4Max Morinière10.34
5Marcus Adam10.35
6Pavel Galkin10.37
7Eric Akogyiram10.68
8Atlee Mahorn10.77

Quarterfinal 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Frankie Fredericks10.13
2Bruny Surin10.24
3Vitaliy Savin10.33
4Davidson Ezinwa10.38
5John Myles-Mills10.41
6Stefan Burkart10.57
7Samuel Nchinda10.58
8Patrick Stevens10.69

Quarterfinal 3

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Dennis Mitchell10.22
2Olapade Adeniken10.22
3Emmanuel Tuffour10.31
4Ray Stewart10.36
5Satoru Inoue10.50
6Daniel Cojocaru10.57
7Daniel Sangouma10.64
8Yiannis Zisimides10.65

Quarterfinal 4

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Linford Christie10.07
2Leroy Burrell10.08
3Chidi Imoh10.21
4Ben Johnson10.30
5Sanusi Turay10.40
6Arnaldo da Silva10.47
7Shinji Aoto10.53
8Jean-Olivier Zirignon10.54

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Leroy Burrell9.97
2Linford Christie10.00
3Dennis Mitchell10.10
4Davidson Ezinwa10.23
5Chidi Imoh10.30
6Robson da Silva10.32
7Vitaliy Savin10.33
8Ben Johnson10.70

Semifinal 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Frankie Fredericks10.17
2Bruny Surin10.21
3Olapade Adeniken10.28
4Ray Stewart10.33
5Talal Mansour Al-Rahim10.34
6Emmanuel Tuffour10.34
7Max Morinière10.42
—Mark Witherspoon

Final

The final was held on August 1, 1992.
RankAthleteNationTime
Linford Christie9.96
Frankie Fredericks10.02
Dennis Mitchell10.04
4Bruny Surin10.09
5Leroy Burrell10.10
6Olapade Adeniken10.12
7Ray Stewart10.22
8Davidson Ezinwa10.26