The women's 100 metres competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. The event was held at the University Olympic Stadium on October 14–15.

The race was won by defending champion Wyomia Tyus. She became the first person to defend the championship at 100 metres, a feat later duplicated by Carl Lewis, Gail Devers, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Usain Bolt and Elaine Thompson-Herah. Director Bud Greenspan filmed Tyus casually dancing behind her starting blocks before the Olympic final. When interviewed later she said she was doing the "Tighten Up" to stay loose. American commentator Dwight Stones suggests this intimidated her opponents.

In the final, American teenager Margaret Bailes gained a step advantage at the gun. That quickly disappeared as Tyus seized control of the race. The chase was on. The next chasers appeared to be her American teammate Barbara Ferrell and Australian teenager Raelene Boyle. Coming on strong toward the finish was Polish veteran Irena Kirszenstein. Tyus dipped at the finish, but there was nobody near her. Ferrell and Boyle were escorted to the holding area, but Officials reading the new fully automatic time system corrected the results to declare Kirszenstein the bronze medalist. Tyus set the world record while Boyle set the List of world junior record in fourth place.

Tyus was credited with 11.0 hand timed, breaking the tie at 11.1 with several women in this race. Two years later, Chi Cheng, 7th place in this race, equalled her time. Her automatic time of 11.07 was the first noted automatic time record of this event. In the subsequent Olympics, that time was equalled by Renate Stecher, but Tyus' time was downgraded to 11.08. By the time fully automatic timing became mandatory, January 1, 1977, Annegret Richter's 11.01 from the 1976 Olympics had displaced them.

Competition format The women's 100m competition consisted of heats (Round 1), quarterfinals, semifinals and a Final. The five fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the quarterfinals. The four fastest runners from each of the quarterfinal races advanced to the semifinals, where again the top four from each race advance to the final.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

World record11.1Prague, CzechoslovakiaJuly 9, 1965Olympic record11.2Tokyo, JapanOctober 15, 1964

Results

Heats

Heat 1 Wind: 0.0 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Wyomia Tyus 11.2 11.21 2 Val Peat 11.5 11.52 3 Violetta Quesada 11.6 11.67 4 Marijana Lubej 11.6 11.68 5 Debbie Miller 11.7 11.71 6 Sylviane Telliez 12.0 12.10 7 Esperanza Girón 12.2 12.30

Heat 2 Wind: +1.3 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Margaret Bailes 11.2 11.30 2 Irene Piotrowski 11.3 11.40 3 Miguelina Cobián 11.4 11.48 4 Pam Kilborn 11.6 11.62 5 Gabrielle Meyer 11.6 11.65 6 Alicia Kaufmanas 11.8 11.90 7 Carmen Smith 11.9 11.94

Heat 3 Wind: +0.1 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Dianne Bowering-Burge 11.5 11.53 2 Fulgencia Romay 11.5 11.53 3 Lyudmila Samotyosova 11.5 11.57 4 Anita Neil 11.6 11.70 5 Oyeronke Akindele 11.6 11.70 6 Vilma Charlton 11.7 11.71 7 Ulla-Britt Wieslander 11.8 11.86

Heat 4 Wind: 0.0 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Irena Szewińska 11.3 11.32 2 Raelene Boyle 11.4 11.44 3 Chi Cheng 11.4 11.45 4 Della James 11.7 11.78 5 Karin Reichert-Frisch 11.9 11.95 6 Mária Kiss 12.0 12.10 — Lydia Stephens

Heat 5 Wind: 0.0 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Eva Glesková 11.6 11.62 2 Renate Meyer 11.7 11.71 3 Lyudmila Golomazova 11.7 11.74 4 Truus Hennipman 11.7 11.76 5 Stephanie Berto 11.8 11.81 6 Margit Nemesházi 11.9 12.00 7 Josefa Vicent 12.5 12.53

Heat 6 Wind: 0.0 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Barbara Ferrell 11.2 11.28 2 Lyudmila Maslakova 11.5 11.54 3 Wilma van Gool-van den Berg 11.5 11.60 4 Olajumoke Bodunrin 11.6 11.71 5 Györgyi Balogh 11.8 11.80 6 Halina Górecka 11.8 11.88 7 Cecilia Sosa 13.7 13.76

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1 Wind: +0.6 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Barbara Ferrell 11.1 11.12 2 Eva Glesková 11.2 11.29 3 Della James 11.3 11.36 4 Miguelina Cobián 11.4 11.41 5 Lyudmila Maslakova 11.4 11.43 6 Pam Kilborn 11.4 11.50 7 Truus Hennipman 11.5 11.59 8 Karin Reichert-Frisch 11.6 11.70

Quarterfinal 2 Wind: +2.7 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Wyomia Tyus 11.0 11.08 2 Chi Cheng 11.3 11.31 3 Wilma van Gool-van den Berg 11.4 11.45 4 Lyudmila Golomazova 11.5 11.54 5 Marijana Lubej 11.6 11.61 6 Anita Neil 11.6 11.61 7 Debbie Miller 11.6 11.64 Olajumoke Bodunrin

Quarterfinal 3 Wind: +0.8 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Raelene Boyle 11.2 11.29 , 2 Margaret Bailes 11.3 11.34 3 Val Peat 11.3 11.39 4 Lyudmila Samotyosova 11.4 11.45 5 Violetta Quesada 11.6 11.65 6 Renate Meyer 11.6 11.67 7 Oyeronke Akindele 11.7 11.75

Quarterfinal 4 Wind: +1.8 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Irena Szewińska 11.1 11.20 2 Dianne Bowering-Burge 11.3 11.33 3 Irene Piotrowski 11.3 11.41 4 Fulgencia Romay 11.4 11.47 5 Gabrielle Meyer 11.6 11.69 6 Györgyi Balogh 11.7 11.78 Stephanie Berto

Semi-finals

Semifinal 1 Wind: -0.2 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Irena Szewińska 11.3 11.30 2 Barbara Ferrell 11.3 11.37 3 Dianne Bowering-Burge 11.4 11.46 4 Chi Cheng 11.4 11.49 5 Fulgencia Romay 11.5 11.52 6 Irene Piotrowski 11.5 11.55 7 Della James 11.6 11.68 8 Lyudmila Golomazova 11.7 11.71

Semifinal 2 Wind: 0.0 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Wyomia Tyus 11.3 11.35 2 Raelene Boyle 11.4 11.41 3 Margaret Bailes 11.5 11.53 4 Miguelina Cobián 11.6 11.63 5 Lyudmila Samotyosova 11.6 11.67 6 Eva Glesková 11.7 11.80 7 Wilma van Gool-van den Berg 11.8 11.81 8 Val Peat 11.8 11.81

Final Wind: +1.2 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes Wyomia Tyus 11.0 11.08 Barbara Ferrell 11.1 11.15 Irena Szewińska 11.1 11.19 4 Raelene Boyle 11.1 11.20 5 Margaret Bailes 11.3 11.37 6 Dianne Bowering-Burge 11.4 11.44 7 Chi Cheng 11.5 11.53 8 Miguelina Cobián 11.6 11.61

References

External links Official Olympic Report, la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 15, 2012.