Rio 2016: How the 100m record has got faster over time

4 August 2016

Usain Bolts poses next to the scoreboard showing his 100m world record — Image caption,
Usain Bolt holds the 100m men's world record time of 9.58 seconds

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The 100m is arguably the Olympic Games' most iconic event.

A gold medal in the race gives an athlete global recognition. Breaking the world record over the distance ensures sporting immortality.

American Donald Lippincott and Czech Marie Mejzlikova were the first, with Jamaica's Usain Bolt and Florence Griffith-Joyner of the United States the current holders of the crown.

Before the 2016 Games in Rio, at which Bolt and compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will defend the 100m titles they won in London four years ago, BBC Sport presents a chronological history of world records in the event, showing each time it has been broken and when.

Year	Gender	Name	Country	Time	Interesting Facts
2009	Men	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	9.58	Continuing Jamaica's 100m dominance, two-time Olympic 100m gold medallist Bolt breaks the record twice in 2008 (including in the Beijing Olympic final) before clocking the fastest ever time in the World Championships final in Berlin.
2008	Men	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	9.69
2008	Men	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	9.72
2007	Men	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	9.74
2005	Men	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	9.77	From 2005 until 2007, Powell dominates, clocking and then twice equalling a new record time before overcoming injury problems to improve it slightly at the IAAF Grand Prix in Rieti, Italy.
1999	Men	Maurice Greene	United States	9.79
1996	Men	Donovan Bailey	Canada	9.84
1994	Men	Leroy Burrell	United States	9.85
1991	Men	Carl Lewis	United States	9.86
1991	Men	Leroy Burrell	United States	9.90
1988	Men	Carl Lewis	United States	9.92
1988					In the men's 100m in Seoul - the most controversial race in athletics history - Canadian Ben Johnson has his gold medal-winning world record time of 9.79 rescinded after he fails a drug test.
1980s					Great Britain won Olympic 100m gold twice in 12 years, courtesy of Allan Wells and Linford Christie. Wells won in Moscow 1980 in a time of 10.25s before Christie triumphed in Barcelona when he clocked 9.96s.
1988	Women	Florence Griffith Joyner	United States	10.49	Los Angeles-born Griffith Joyner knocks almost half a second off her pre-1988 best to set a new record at the US Olympic trials before going on to win gold at the Seoul Games. It remains the fastest ever by a female athlete.
1984	Women	Evelyn Ashford	United States	10.76
1983	Men	Calvin Smith	United States	9.93
1983	Women	Evelyn Ashford	United States	10.79
1983	Women	Marlies Gohr	East Germany	10.81
1977	Women	Marlies Gohr	East Germany	10.88
1977					The IAAF decrees that all times must be recorded using fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second
1976	Women	Annegret Richter	West Germany	11.01
1976	Women	Inge Helten	West Germany	11.04
1972	Women	Renate Stecher	East Germany	11.07
1968	Men	Jim Hines	United States	9.95	American Hines is the first to go under the 10-second barrier during the USA Track and Field Championships in Sacramento. In a meeting dubbed 'The Night of Speed', Hines' time is equalled by Ronnie Ray Smith and Charles Greene.
1968	Men	Jim Hines	United States	9.9
1968	Women	Wyomia Tyus	United States	11.08
1968					The Mexico City Olympics are the first global track and field event to be held on a firm synthetic surface.
1965	Women	Irena Szewinska	Poland	11.1
1961	Women	Wilma Rudolph	United States	11.2	A year after becoming the first American woman athlete to win three track and field golds at one Olympics, Rudolph breaks the world record in Stuttgart.
1960	Men	Armin Hary	West Germany	10.0
1956	Men	Willie Williams	United States	10.1
1955	Women	Shirley Strickland	Australia	11.3
1952	Women	Marjorie Nelson	Australia	11.4
1948	Women	Fanny Blankers-Koen	Netherlands	11.5
1948					Starting blocks and wind gauges are first used at an Olympic Games, in London.
1937	Women	Stanislawa Walasiewicz	Poland	11.6
1936	Men	Jesse Owens	United States	10.2	American Owens breaks the record in Chicago in June. Two months later he won four gold medals - including in the 100m - at the Berlin Olympics amid Nazi propaganda promoting 'Aryan superiority'.
1934	Women	Stanislawa Walasiewicz	Poland	11.7
1933	Women	Stanislawa Walasiewicz	Poland	11.8
1932	Women	Tollien Schuurman	Netherlands	11.9
1930	Men	Percy Williams	Canada	10.3
1928	Women	Myrtle Cook	Canada	12.0
1928	Women	Kinue Hitomi	Japan	12.2
1926	Women	Gundel Wittman	Germany	12.4
1922	Women	Mary Lines	Great Britain	12.8
1922	Women	Marie Mejzlikova II	Czechoslovakia	13.6	The first recorded women's world record time is that set by Mejzlikova in Prague in her native Czechoslovakia.
1921	Men	Charles Paddock	United States	10.4
1912	Men	Donald Lippincott	United States	10.6	The IAAF starts identifying world records in 1912, with American Lippincott recording the first in his heat at the Olympics in Stockholm. He won bronze in the final.

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Rio 2016: How the 100m record has got faster over time

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