The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany, was held at Olympiastadion on 31 August and 1 September. Eighty-five athletes from 55 nations competed. Each nation was limited to 3 athletes per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Valeriy Borzov of the Soviet Union, the first medal in the men's 100 metres for that nation. Jamaican Lennox Miller, silver medalist four years earlier, became the second man to make the podium twice in the event by taking bronze (after Ralph Metcalfe in 1932 and 1936).

This event is notable for the absence of favourites and world record holders Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson from their quarterfinal heats due to American sprint coach Stan Wright being given the wrong starting time. The three qualified American athletes, Robinson, Hart and Robert Taylor, were at the ABC television headquarters watching what they believed were replays of their morning preliminary races before being informed they were watching live coverage of the races they were scheduled to run in. The athletes rushed to the stadium, but Hart and Robinson, scheduled in the first two races, missed their heats, while Robert Taylor hurried to take off his warm up uniform before running his heat. An appeal by American officials to have Robinson and Hart run in another heat was rejected.

Background

This was the seventeenth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. Two finalists from 1968 returned: Lennox Miller of Jamaica and Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa of Madagascar. The favourite was Soviet Valeriy Borzov, the European champion. The American team was missing John Carlos, who had turned to professional football, but still had strong runners in Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson, who had matched the world record of 9.9 seconds in the U.S. Olympic trials, and Robert Taylor.

Thirteen nations appeared in the event for the first time: Bolivia, Cambodia (then Khmer Republic), Chad, Kuwait, Lesotho, Malawi, Mongolia, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Upper Volta, the Virgin Islands, and Zambia (though Northern Rhodesia had competed previously). The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first seventeen Olympic men's 100 metres events.

Competition format The event retained the same basic four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. It also expanded the "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1968, to include the quarterfinals as well as the preliminary heats.

The first round consisted of 12 heats, each with 6–8 athletes. The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next four fastest runners overall. This made 40 quarterfinalists, who were divided into five heats of 8 runners. The top three runners in each quarterfinal advanced, along with the single fastest fourth-place finisher. The 16 semifinalists competed in two heats of 8, with the top four in each semifinal advancing to the eight-man final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 48.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record 9.9 Jim Hines Sacramento, United States 20 June 1968 9.9 Ronnie Ray Smith Sacramento, United States 20 June 1968 9.9 Charles Greene Sacramento, United States 20 June 1968 9.9 Jim Hines Mexico City, Mexico 14 October 1968 9.9 Eddie Hart Eugene, United States 1 July 1972 9.9 Rey Robinson Eugene, United States 1 July 1972 Olympic record 9.9 Jim Hines Mexico City, Mexico 14 October 1968

No records were set in the event at the 1972 Games.

Results

Heats

The top three runners in each of the twelve heats, and the next fastest four, advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Lennox Miller 10.45 2 Amadou Meïté 10.51 3 Hans-Jürgen Bombach 10.66 4 Rudy Reid 10.74 5 Dan Amuke 10.76 6 Byambajavyn Enkhbaatar 10.93 7 Samphon Mao 10.95 8 Luis Alers 11.09

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Valeriy Borzov 10.47 2 Mike Sands 10.67 3 Luděk Bohman 10.72 4 Gerhard Wucherer 10.82 5 Tadeusz Cuch 10.89 6 Yeo Kian Chye 10.92 7 Alphonse Yanghat 10.95 8 Andrew Sartee 11.09

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Manfred Kokot 10.49 2 Sandy Osei-Agyemang 10.52 3 Les Piggot 10.54 4 John Mwebi 10.60 5 Luís da Silva 10.63 6 Kevin Johnson 10.91 7 Mansour Al-Juaid 11.23 – Robert Arega

Heat 4

The tailwind of 2.3 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Jaroslav Matoušek 10.37 2 Brian Green 10.41 3 Kouakou Komenan 10.50 4 Walter Callander 10.78 5 George Calhern 10.90 6 Farhad Navab 11.02 7 Angel Guerreros 11.12 – Anat Ratanapol

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Aleksandr Kornelyuk 10.38 2 Kola Abdulai 10.57 3 Stanisław Wagner 10.62 4 Juraj Demeč 10.66 5 Félix Mata 10.73 6 Bjarni Stefánsson 10.99 7 Younis Abdallah 11.20 – Gaoussou Koné

Heat 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Rey Robinson 10.56 2 Philippe Clerc 10.58 3 Sammy Monsels 10.61 4 George Daniels 10.65 5 André Bicaba 10.71 6 Motsapi Moorosi 10.74 7 William Dralu 10.92

Heat 7

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Hasely Crawford 10.50 2 Don Halliday 10.58 3 Erik Gustafsson 10.68 4 Guillermo González 10.73 5 Norman Chihota 10.79 6 Egzi Gebre-Gebre 10.89 7 Pierre-Richard Gaetjens 11.50 – Pablo Montes

Heat 8

The tailwind of 2.10 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Barka Sy 10.30 2 Bernd Borth 10.48 3 Audun Garshol 10.49 4 Su Wen-Ho 10.59 5 Gana Abba Kimet 10.89 6 Raimo Vilén 11.00 7 Lionel Caero 11.19

Heat 9

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Alain Sarteur 10.42 2 Saleh Alah-Djaba 10.65 3 Charlie Francis 10.68 4 Andrés Calonge 10.73 5 Laurie D'Arcy 10.77 6 Larmeck Mukonde 11.16 – Hermes Ramírez

Heat 10

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Vasilios Papageorgopoulos 10.24 2 Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa 10.29 3 Michael Fray 10.47 4 Antti Rajamäki 10.52 5 Ainsley Armstrong 10.56 6 Jorge Vizcarrondo 10.79 7 Zain-ud-Din bin Abdul Wahab 10.80

Heat 11

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Eddie Hart 10.47 2 Dominique Chauvelot 10.66 3 Klaus Ehl 10.67 4 Benedict Majekodunmi 10.70 5 Gaston Malam 10.88 6 Sunil Gunawardene 11.00 7 Tukal Mokalam 11.02

Heat 12

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Robert Taylor 10.32 2 Jobst Hirscht 10.36 3 Zenon Nowosz 10.36 4 Volodymyr Atamas 10.51 5 Axel Nepraunik 10.61 6 André Byrame 10.64 7 Moustafa Matola 11.31

Quarterfinals

The top three runners in each of the five heats and the next fastest one, advanced to the semifinal round.

Quarterfinal 1

Hart failed to appear due to a scheduling change and coaching error.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Jobst Hirscht 10.25 2 Jaroslav Matoušek 10.35 3 Bernd Borth 10.44 4 Philippe Clerc 10.45 5 Ainsley Armstrong 10.47 6 Mike Sands 10.50 7 Audun Garshol 10.55 - Eddie Hart

Quarterfinal 2

Robinson failed to appear due to a scheduling change and coaching error.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa 10.47 2 Brian Green 10.58 3 Kouakou Komenan 10.60 4 Stanisław Wagner 10.61 5 Sandy Osei-Agyemang 10.66 6 Erik Gustafsson 10.78 7 Su Wen-Ho 10.82 - Rey Robinson

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Valeriy Borzov 10.07 , 2 Robert Taylor 10.16 3 Hasely Crawford 10.18 4 Zenon Nowosz 10.40 5 Klaus Ehl 10.44 6 Les Piggot 10.53 7 Dominique Chauvelot 10.54 8 Hans-Jürgen Bombach 10.64

Quarterfinal 4

The tailwind of 3.40 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Aleksandr Kornelyuk 10.23 2 Barka Sy 10.27 3 Michael Fray 10.28 4 Kola Abdulai 10.41 5 Antti Rajamäki 10.43 6 Manfred Kokot 10.44 7 Saleh Alah-Djaba 10.51 8 Charlie Francis 10.51

Quarterfinal 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Lennox Miller 10.33 2 Alain Sarteur 10.40 3 Vasilios Papageorgopoulos 10.45 4 Amadou Meïté 10.52 5 Luděk Bohman 10.52 6 Don Halliday 10.60 7 Sammy Monsels 10.64 8 Vladimir Atamas 10.83

Semifinals

The top four runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Papageorgopoulos was forced to scratch after he pulled a groin muscle in the quarter-finals.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Valeriy Borzov 10.21 2 Hasely Crawford 10.36 3 Jobst Hirscht 10.36 4 Michael Fray 10.48 5 Alain Sarteur 10.51 6 Kouakou Komenan 10.57 7 Bernd Borth 10.60 - Vasilios Papageorgopoulos

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Robert Taylor 10.30 2 Lennox Miller 10.31 3 Aleksandr Kornelyuk 10.35 4 Zenon Nowosz 10.42 5 Barka Sy 10.42 6 Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa 10.46 7 Jaroslav Matoušek 10.51 8 Brian Green 10.52

Final

Borzov "won fairly easily."

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time 2 Valeriy Borzov 10.14 4 Robert Taylor 10.24 5 Lennox Miller 10.33 4 6 Aleksandr Kornelyuk 10.36 5 8 Michael Fray 10.40 6 7 Jobst Hirscht 10.40 7 1 Zenon Nowosz 10.46 – 3 Hasely Crawford Wind speed =

References 3. Die Spiele, The official report of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXth Olympiad Munich 1972, Volume 3 The competitions, page 49.