The women's 100 metres was an event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. There were a total number of 56 participating athletes, with two rounds (seven heats in round 1, four heats at round 2), two semifinals and a final. Although both Gail Devers of the United States and Merlene Ottey of Jamaica had clocked the same time in the final at the finish line at 10.94 seconds, snapshot of their photo finish confirmed that Devers had edged Ottey out for the gold medal.

Records These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics.

World record 10.49 Florence Griffith-Joyner Indianapolis (USA) July 16, 1988 Olympic record 10.62 Florence Griffith-Joyner Seoul (KOR) September 24, 1988

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Chandra Sturrup 11.24 2 Hanitriniaina Rakotondrabe 11.36 3 Irina Privalova 11.42 4 Zlatka Georgieva 11.74 5 Nataliya Vorobyova 11.91 6 Lyudmila Dmitriady 12.04 7 Ouk Chanthan 14.82

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Zhanna Pintusevich 11.20 2 Melanie Paschke 11.27 3 Odiah Sidibé 11.40 4 Mary Tombiri-Shirey 11.50 5 Hermin Joseph 11.56 6 Cleide Amaral 11.76 7 Myriam Mani 11.76 8 Elvira Cabbarova 11.96

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Merlene Ottey 11.13 2 Susanthika Jayasinghe 11.18 3 Ekaterini Thanou 11.35 4 Iryna Pukha 11.36 5 Heather Samuel 11.44 6 Yan Jiankui 11.46 7 Mirtha Brock 11.83 8 Sortelina Pires 13.31

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Juliet Cuthbert 11.06 2 D'Andre Hill 11.11 3 Silke Lichtenhagen 11.30 4 Eldece Clarke 11.33 5 Petya Pendareva 11.59 6 Cydonie Mothersill 11.61 7 Michelle Baptiste 11.92 8 Natalie Martindale 12.25

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Marina Trandenkova 11.20 2 Chioma Ajunwa 11.25 3 Myra Mayberry 11.51 4 Stephi Douglas 11.61 5 Zandra Borrero 11.62 6 Jerneja Perc 11.63 7 Beverly McDonald 12.08 8 Isménia do Frederico 13.03

Heat 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Gwen Torrence 11.11 2 Natalya Voronova 11.22 3 Lucrécia Jardim 11.32 4 Katerina Koffa 11.33 5 Sanna Hernesniemi 11.39 6 Marcia Richardson 11.42 7 Wang Huei-Chen 11.70 8 Nester Geniwala'a 13.74 9 Juliana Obiong 13.88

Heat 7

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Gail Devers 10.92 2 Mary Onyali 11.17 3 Andrea Philipp 11.32 4 Debbie Ferguson 11.33 5 Simmone Jacobs 11.39 6 Mireille Donders 11.67 7 Lee Young-sook 11.88 8 Elizabeth Chávez 12.10

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Gwen Torrence 11.11 2 Marina Trandenkova 11.15 3 Chioma Ajunwa 11.24 4 Odiah Sidibé 11.38 5 Katerina Koffa 11.38 6 Hanitriniaina Rakotondrabe 11.43 7 Heather Samuel 11.60 8 Stephi Douglas 11.75

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Gail Devers 10.94 2 Mary Onyali 11.08 3 Debbie Ferguson 11.26 4 Lucrécia Jardim 11.37 5 Andrea Philipp 11.38 6 Iryna Pukha 11.42 7 Marcia Richardson 11.55 — Susanthika Jayasinghe

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Juliet Cuthbert 11.20 2 Chandra Sturrup 11.21 3 D'Andre Hill 11.21 4 Irina Privalova 11.40 5 Simmone Jacobs 11.47 6 Ekaterini Thanou 11.48 7 Silke Lichtenhagen 11.53 8 Mary Tombiri-Shirey 11.56

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Merlene Ottey 11.02 2 Zhanna Pintusevich 11.14 3 Natalya Voronova 11.17 4 Melanie Paschke 11.18 5 Eldece Clarke 11.47 6 Sanna Hernesniemi 11.49 7 Myra Mayberry 11.66 8 Zlatka Georgieva 11.99

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Merlene Ottey 10.93 2 Gwen Torrence 10.97 3 Marina Trandenkova 11.07 4 Zhanna Pintusevich 11.14 5 Chioma Ajunwa 11.14 6 D'Andre Hill 11.20 7 Debbie Ferguson 11.28 8 Odiah Sidibé 11.35

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Gail Devers 11.00 2 Mary Onyali 11.04 3 Natalya Voronova 11.07 4 Chandra Sturrup 11.07 5 Juliet Cuthbert 11.07 6 Melanie Paschke 11.14 7 Irina Privalova 11.31 8 Lucrécia Jardim 11.32

Final Held on July 27, 1996 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time 6 Gail Devers 10.94 3 Merlene Ottey 10.94 5 Gwen Torrence 10.96 4 7 Chandra Sturrup 11.00 5 1 Marina Trandenkova 11.06 6 2 Natalya Voronova 11.10 7 4 Mary Onyali 11.13 8 8 Zhanna Pintusevich 11.14

References