Olympics 100m champions – Usain Bolt leads with three golds
Jamaica have won four of the last five gold medals in women’s 100m, while the USA have taken 17 of 30 men’s 100m gold medals.
Athletics
Marcell Jacobs became the first Italian to win a 100m sprint at the Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020, while Julien Alfred became Saint Lucia's first-ever Olympic champion when she claimed the women's 100m title at Paris 2024.
Julien Alfred took over the crown from Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson Herah, who successfully defended her Rio 2016 gold in the women’s 100m with a new Olympic record at Tokyo 2020.
Noah Lyles of the USA, meanwhile, is the reigning 100m Olympic champion. He won the Paris 2024 title in 9.79 seconds.
In fact, at the Paris 2024 Olympics 100m final, eight men broke 10 seconds in a wind-legal race for the first time in history.
The 100m is one of the most high-profile competitions of the Summer Olympics. The men’s event has been held since the inception of the modern Games in Athens 1896. The women’s race was added in Amsterdam 1928.
The USA has been the most successful nation in 100m at the Olympics, having won 16 of the 29 men’s gold medals so far, and nine of the 22 women’s gold medals.
Jamaica’s Usain Bolt holds the Olympic as well as the world record in the men’s 100m and is the most successful sprinter ever in the event with three gold medals. Carl Lewis of the USA, with two, is the only other man to have won multiple gold medals in 100m at the Olympics.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica), Wyomia Tyus (USA), Gail Devers (USA) and Elaine Thompson Herah have all won two gold medals each in women’s 100m. Fraser-Pryce has also won a silver and a bronze, her four medals being the most by any sprinter at the Olympics 100m.
Merlene Ottey of Jamaica (women’s 100m) is the only one to win three medals at the Olympics without a single gold, having won one silver and two bronze medals.
Betty Robinson of the USA (Amsterdam 1928, women’s 100m) is the youngest Olympics 100m champion ever at 16 years, 11 months, 8 days. Reggie Walker of South Africa (London 1908) is the youngest male champion in Olympics 100m at 19 years, 4 months, 6 days.
Linford Christie of Great Britain (Barcelona 1992) is the oldest male Olympics 100m champion at 32 years, 3 months, 30 days. Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands (London 1948) is the oldest female Olympics 100m champion at 30 years, 3 months, 7 days.
The Olympic men’s 100m record has improved from 12.2 seconds in 1896 to 9.63 seconds at present. The Olympic record in women’s 100m has improved from 13 seconds in 1928 to 10.61 seconds currently.