The men's 100 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July and 1 August 2021 at the Olympic Stadium. 84 athletes were expected to compete; 27 nations used universality places to enter athletes in addition to the 56 qualifying through standard time or ranking (23 universality places were used in 2016). 78 athletes from 59 nations competed. Marcell Jacobs won the gold medal, establishing twice, semifinal and final, the new European record, Italy's first medal in the men's 100 metres. The United States extended its podium streak in the event to six Games with Fred Kerley's silver, only third at the U.S. Trials. Canadian Andre De Grasse won his second consecutive bronze medal in the 100 metres establishing his personal best. With Usain Bolt retired, Jamaica's three-Games gold medal streak ended.

After the Games, it was reported that Giacomo Spazzini, who had worked as Jacobs' nutritionist, was involved in a steroid investigation in Italy. In response, Jacobs' agent stated that the athlete had cut ties with Spazzini several months before the Olympics.

Summary Former 400 metres specialist (ranked #8 of all time) USA's Fred Kerley won the first semi-final, with defending bronze medalist Andre De Grasse from Canada qualifying as second. In the second semi-final American world leader and gold medal favourite Trayvon Bromell was pipped in a photofinish by Enoch Adegoke of Nigeria, who came in second behind Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, the current European Champion.

In the third semi-final China's Su Bingtian got a blistering start and held off the group to improve his own Asian record by 0.08 to 9.83, concurrently setting the unofficial 60 metres world best. Two thousandths behind, Ronnie Baker from USA also improved his personal best, both men timed at 9.83 and tied for #12 on the all time list. Italy's Marcell Jacobs, who had arrived at the event as the 60 metres world leader, came in a close third and was timed at 9.84, setting the European record, improving his PB by 0.1 and equalling 1996 champion Donovan Bailey for #14. Jacobs qualified for the final on time along with the second pre-Olympics favorite, African record holder Akani Simbine of South Africa who qualified with 9.90. Bromell, having run a time of 10.00, was eliminated in what was considered a significant upset.

The center lanes of the final included the three heat winners Su, Kerley and Hughes and fastest second Baker.

Hughes bolted early for a clear false start, with all runners except Jacobs sprinting from the blocks after him, and was disqualified. The second start was clean: Su could not repeat his great semi-final start, with Kerley having the fastest reaction time and leading the race until about the 70 m mark, where he was passed by a resurgent Jacobs. From there, Jacobs opened up space on the group, with Kerley staying the closest as Adegoke pulled up lame, while De Grasse, after running last, accelerated and passed Baker and Simbine at the 90 metres mark to take his second bronze medal in the event. Jacobs had the clear win over Kerley and was immediately cheered by Gianmarco Tamberi, who had just won the high jump event just 13 minutes earlier. The two hugged and celebrated an iconic moment in Italian Olympic history.

Jacobs was timed at 9.80 for an unexpected Olympic victory. This marked his second improvement of the European record in just a few hours, tying Steve Mullings for #10 of all time. Kerley and De Grasse both improved their wind-legal personal best results to 9.84 and 9.89 respectively.

Background This was the twenty-ninth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nauru, the Refugee Olympic Team, Slovakia, and Tajikistan each made their men's 100 metres debut. The United States made its 28th appearance in the event, the most of any country, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 100 metres event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period (the limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress). The qualifying standard is 10.05 seconds. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 56 is reached.

The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Only outdoor meets were eligible for the sprints and short hurdles, including the 100 metres. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period. Races with wind above 2.0 m/s were not included.

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 100 metres.

Entry number: 56 (17 from Ranking) + 27 Universality and 1 Invitational. Some sprinters, like Aaron Brown, have been withdrawn (see note #11).

Qualification standardNo. of athletes NOC Nominated athletesEntry standard – 10.053 Zharnel HughesReece PrescodChijindu Ujah3 Yohan BlakeOblique SevilleTyquendo Tracey3 Yuki KoikeShuhei TadaRyota YamagataThe results of the 2021 Japanese championships were the following: 1. Shuhei Tada 10.15, 2. 10.19, 3. Ryota Yamagata 10.27, 4. Yuki Koike (sprinter) 10.27, 5. Yoshihide Kiryu 10.28.3 Enoch AdegokeUsheoritse ItsekiriDivine Oduduru3 Gift LeotlelaShaun MaswanganyiAkani Simbine3 Ronnie BakerTrayvon BromellFred Kerley1 Andre De GrasseAaron Brown2 Su BingtianXie Zhenye2 Joseph AmoahBenjamin Azamati-Kwaku1 Mark OdhiamboFerdinand Omurwa1 Cejhae Greene1 Rohan Browning1 Samson Colebrooke1 Mario Burke1 Paulo André de Oliveira1 Kemar Hyman1 Jimmy Vicaut1 Lalu Muhammad Zohri1 Hassan Taftian1 Marcell Jacobs1 Arthur Cissé1 Emmanuel Matadi1 Femi Ogunode1 Jason RogersWorld ranking2 Felipe Bardi dos SantosRodrigo do Nascimento2 Bismark BoatengGavin Smellie2 Silvan WickiAlex Wilson2 Emre Zafer BarnesJak Ali Harvey1 Wu Zhiqiang1 Yang Chun-han1 Kojo Musah0 Mouhamadou FallThe French sprinter will only run in the 4 × 100 m relay. The Road to Tokyo tool of World Athletics indicates two more sprinters who would have qualified by ranking as "withdrawn": Edward Osei-Nketia (NZL) and Kevin Kranz (GER). Aaron Brown (CAN) is also "withdrawn" but had qualified by entry standard.1 Filippo Tortu1 Alonso Edward1 Carlos Nascimento1 Ján Volko1 Yupun AbeykoonUniversality Places1 Sha Mahmood Noor Zahi1 Aveni Miguel1 Nathan Crumpton1 Shaun Gill1 Didier Kiki1 Bruno Rojas1 Pen Sokong1 Oliver Mwimba1 Scott Fiti1 Banuve Tabakaucoro1 Guy Maganga Gorra1 Ebrima Camara1 Seco Camara1 Emanuel Archibald1 Lataisi Mwea1 Hassan Saaid1 Jonah Harris1 Yeykell Romero1 Badamassi Saguirou1 Barakat Al-Harthi1 Adrian Ililau1 Ildar Akhmadiev1 Fabrice Dabla1 Ronald Fotofili1 Karalo Maibuca1 Mohamed Alhammadi1 Ngoni MakushaInvitational Places1 Dorian Keletela Total 8328 athletes from Universality and Invitational at the preliminary round only.

Competition format The event continued to use the preliminaries plus three main rounds format introduced in 2012. Athletes not meeting the qualification standard (that is, were entered through universality places) competed in the preliminaries; those who met the standard started in the first round.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records were as follows:

+Global records before the 2020 Summer OlympicsRecordAthlete (Nation)Time (s)LocationDateWorld record9.58Berlin, Germany16 August 2009Olympic record9.63London, United Kingdom5 August 2012World leading9.77"Season Top Lists – Senior 2021 – 100 Metres men", World Athletics, 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2024.Miramar, Florida, United States5 June 2021

+Area records before the 2020 Summer Olympics Area Time (s) Wind Athlete Nation Africa 9.84 +1.2 Akani Simbine Asia 9.91 +1.8 Femi Ogunode 9.91 +0.6 9.91 +0.2 Su Bingtian 9.91 +0.8Europe 9.86 +0.6 Francis Obikwelu 9.86 +1.3 Jimmy Vicaut 9.86 +1.8 North, Central America and Caribbean 9.58 +0.9 Usain Bolt Oceania 9.93 +1.8 Patrick Johnson South America 10.00 +1.6 Robson da Silva

The following national records were established during the competition:

Country Athlete Round Time Notes Tuvalu Karalo Maibuca Preliminaries 11.42 Italy Marcell Jacobs Round 1 9.94 Semifinals 9.84 , Final 9.80 , Kenya Ferdinand Omurwa Round 1 10.01 Semifinals 10.00 China Su Bingtian Semifinals 9.83

Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00)

The men's 100 metres took place over two consecutive days.

Date Time RoundSaturday, 31 July 2021 9:0019:00PreliminariesRound 1 Sunday, 1 August 2021 19:0021:50 SemifinalsFinal

Results

Preliminaries Qualification Rules: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 1 fastest (q) advance to Round 1.

Preliminary heat 1 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes17Ngoni Makusha10.3228Fabrice Dabla10.5736Yeykell Romero10.6241Hassan Saaid10.7053Shaun Gill10.8869Pen Sokong11.0274Sha Mahmood Noor Zahi11.0485Lataisi Mwea11.2592Nathan Crumpton11.27 Wind: -0.2 m/s

Preliminary heat 2 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes12Barakat Al-Harthi10.27, 29Emanuel Archibald10.30 31Mohamed Alhammadi10.59 (10.581), 5Banuve Tabakaucoro10.59 (10.581), 57Bruno Rojas10.6464Didier Kiki10.6973Badamassi Saguirou10.8788Ronald Fotofili11.19 —6Aveni Miguel Wind: 0.0 m/s

Preliminary heat 3 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes16Dorian Keletela10.33, 21Guy Maganga Gorra10.6132Oliver Mwimba10.6343Ildar Akhmadiev10.6655Jonah Harris11.0168Scott Fiti11.2574Seco Camara11.3389Adrian Ililau11.42 (11.414)97Karalo Maibuca11.42 (11.418) Wind: +0.9 m/s

Round 1 Qualification Rules: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 3 fastest (q) advance to the semifinals.

Heat 1 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes18Ronnie Baker10.0323Jimmy Vicaut10.07, 32Usheoritse Itsekiri10.1541Wu Zhiqiang10.1859Yang Chun-han10.2167Shuhei Tada10.2275Emre Zafer Barnes10.4786Guy Maganga Gorra10.77 —4Tyquendo Tracey Wind: +0.2 m/s

Heat 2 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes16Enoch Adegoke9.98, 23Femi Ogunode10.0238Zharnel Hughes10.04, 47Trayvon Bromell10.0559Felipe Bardi10.2664Silvan Wicki10.2875Samson Colebrooke10.3381Dorian Keletela10.41 (10.405)92Emanuel Archibald10.41 (10.405) Wind: +0.3 m/s

Heat 3 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes14Marcell Jacobs9.94, 29Oblique Seville10.04, =31Shaun Maswanganyi10.1247Ryota Yamagata10.1552Xie Zhenye10.1665Yupun Abeykoon10.3278Carlos Nascimento10.3786Gavin Smellie10.4493Oliver Mwimba10.97 Wind: +0.1 m/s

Heat 4 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes12Gift Leotlela10.0424Su Bingtian10.0538Jason Rogers10.2147Yuki Koike10.2255Lalu Muhammad Zohri10.2663Ebrima Camara10.3376Kemar Hyman10.4189Banuve Tabakaucoro10.70 —1Mark OdhiamboDoping disqualification just before his race. Wind: 0.0 m/s

Heat 5 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes19Andre De Grasse9.91, 23Fred Kerley9.9736Ferdinand Omurwa10.01, =41Filippo Tortu10.10, 58Reece Prescod10.12, 65Jak Ali Harvey10.2574Barakat Al-Harthi10.3187Mohamed Alhammadi10.64 —2Divine Oduduru Wind: +0.6 m/s

Heat 6