The women's 100 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 30 and 31 July 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. 71 athletes from 55 nations competed at the event.

The defending champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah, won the event in 10.61 secs, to break Florence Griffith Joyner's 33-year-old Olympic record. This was her third Olympic gold medal. The silver medal went to 2016 bronze medalist and the 2008 and 2012 champion in this event, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, while Shericka Jackson won the bronze medal, completing the podium sweep for Jamaica. The winning margin was 0.13 seconds. The winner had the sixth fastest reaction time in the final.

Summary Early in May, two time Olympic Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce made a categorical statement that her career is not over. Thirteen years after her first gold medal, she ran not only her personal best, but the number 2 mark of all time 10.63. She took the Jamaican Olympic Trials, while the defending Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson-Herah didn't show the same kind of form, finishing as the last qualifier in third place. At the U.S. Trials, Sha'Carri Richardson ran 10.86 potentially setting up a close race in Tokyo until Richardson was taken out of the competition after a drug test came up positive for cannabis.

The heats revealed Marie-Josée Ta Lou was ready to be in the mix, setting the African record at 10.78 to lead the round. Fraser-Pryce led the semi-final round at 10.73 over Thompson-Herah. Ta-Lou and Jamaican Trials runner-up Shericka Jackson were all under 10.80. Daryll Neita was the final qualifier at 10.992, while Michelle-Lee Ahye missed the final with 10.993.

Fraser-Pryce is known for her fast starts. In the final she was out well, but Thompson-Herah was out quickly with her. By 30 metres, Thompson-Herah took the lead, with Jackson and Ta Lou battling for bronze. From there Thompson-Herah separated from Fraser-Pryce. Jackson separated from Ta Lou and gained on Fraser-Pryce. Three metres out from the finish, Thompson-Herah held up her left arm celebrating a clear victory. Fraser-Pryce had too much of a lead for Jackson to reach her but she completed the sweep for Jamaica, the trio .15 ahead of the next competitor Ta Lou. Thompson-Herah's 10.61 was not just a clear victory, it was a .09 improvement on her personal best. It beat Florence Griffith Joyner's 1988 Olympic Record and tied Griffith Joyner's second fastest race ever while displacing Fraser-Pryce from the number 2 position on the all-time list.

Thompson-Herah joined Wyomia Tyus, Gail Devers and Fraser-Pryce as the only women to defend their 100 metres title. By winning the silver medal, Fraser-Pryce became the first person, man or woman, to win 4 Olympic medals in the blue-ribbon event of the 100m.

Background This was the 22nd time the event was held, since women's athletics were introduced in 1928.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the women'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 11.15 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.

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

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) will compete 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:

Area Time (s) Wind Athlete Nation Africa 10.78 +1.6 Murielle Ahouré Asia 10.79 +0.0 Li Xuemei Europe 10.73 +2.0 Christine Arron North, Central America and Caribbean 10.49 +0.0 Florence Griffith Joyner Oceania 11.11 +1.9 Melissa Breen 11.11 +0.0 Denise Robertson South America 10.91 -0.2 Rosângela Santos

The following records were established during the competition: Date Event Athlete Nation Time Record 31 July Final Elaine Thompson-Herah 10.61

In the final, Elaine Thompson-Herah set the new Olympic record, improving Griffith Joyner's 1988 time by 0.01 seconds. This was the fourth oldest Olympic record in athletics.

The following national records were established during the competition:

Nation Athlete Round Time Notes Afghanistan Kamia Yousufi Preliminaries 13.29 Malawi Asimenye Simwaka Preliminaries 11.76 Round 1 11.68 Palestine Hanna Barakat Preliminaries 12.16 Switzerland Mujinga Kambundji Round 1 10.95 Ajla del Ponte Round 1 10.91 Ivory Coast Marie-Josée Ta Lou Round 1 10.78 The Gambia Gina Bass Round 1 11.12 Jamaica Elaine Thompson-Herah Final 10.61

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

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

Date Time Round Friday, 30 July 2021 9:0019:00 PreliminariesRound 1 Saturday, 31 July 2021 19:0021:50 SemifinalsFinal

Results

Preliminaries The preliminary round of the competition featured athletes who had not achieved the required qualifying time for the event. Athletes who had achieved that time received a bye into the first round proper.

Qualification rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the fastest time (q) qualified.

Preliminary Heat 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Natacha Ngoye Akamabi 0.124 11.47, 2 8 Margaret Vanessa Barrie 0.142 11.53, 3 5 Amya Clarke 0.155 11.67 4 9 Djénébou Danté 0.169 12.12 5 1 Hadel Aboud 0.126 12.70 6 2 Bashair Obaid Al-Manwari 0.142 13.12 7 7 Kamia Yousufi 0.157 13.29 8 3 Alba Mbo Nchama 0.148 13.36 9 4 Amed Elna 0.161 14.30 Wind: +0.3 m/s

Preliminary Heat 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 3 Farzaneh Fasihi 0.142 11.762 8 Azreen Nabila Alias 0.168 11.77, 3 4 Mudhawi Al-Shammari 0.167 11.824 5 Regine Tugade-Watson 0.135 12.175 7 Charlotte Afriat 0.131 12.356 9 Silina Pha Aphay 0.170 12.417 6 Hsieh Hsi-en 0.171 12.49 8 2 Sarswati Chaudhary 0.158 12.919 1 Yasmeen Al-Dabbagh 0.153 13.34 Wind: +0.5 m/s

Preliminary Heat 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 9 Joella Lloyd 0.17911.55 2 5 Asimenye Simwaka 0.16411.76 , 3 7 Alvin Tehupeiory 0.194 11.89, 4 1 Carla Scicluna 0.15212.11 q 5 4 Hanna Barakat 0.164 12.16 6 8 Mazoon Al-Alawi 0.191 12.35 7 3 Aissata Deen Conte 0.157 12.43 8 6 Matie Stanley 0.159 14.52 9 2 Houlèye Ba 0.147 15.26 Wind: +0.8 m/s

Heats Qualification Rules: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 3 fastest (q) advance to the Semifinals.

Wind readings- Heat 1: -0.1 m/s; Heat 2: +0.1 m/s; Heat 3: -0.4 m/s; Heat 4: -0.3 m/s; Heat 5: +1.3 m/s; Heat 6: -0.1 m/s; Heat 7: -0.2 m/s

Heat 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 5 Teahna Daniels 0.136 11.04 2 4 Dina Asher-Smith 0.103 11.07 3 8 Murielle Ahouré 0.132 11.16 , 4 7 Ge Manqi 0.149 11.20 5 6 Salomé Kora 0.146 11.25 6 9 Marije van Hunenstijn 0.158 11.27 7 2 Joella Lloyd 0.173 11.54 8 3 Asimenye Simwaka 0.161 11.68

Heat 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Elaine Thompson-Herah 0.158 10.822 5 Mujinga Kambundji 0.111 10.95, =3 6 Tatjana Pinto 0.164 11.164 4 Khamica Bingham 0.156 11.215 3 Rosângela Santos 0.180 11.336 9 Kelly-Ann Baptiste 0.150 11.487 8 Vittoria Fontana 0.149 11.538 2 Alvin Tehupeiory 0.18911.92

Heat 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 4 Alexandra Burghardt 0.133 11.082 6 Javianne Oliver 0.150 11.15 3 9 Anna Bongiorni 0.147 11.35 4 7 Rhoda Njobvu 0.130 11.40(.394) 5 8 Liang Xiaojing 0.159 11.40(.396) 6 5 Tristan Evelyn 0.125 11.42 7 3 Margaret Barrie 0.148 11.45 8 2 Farzaneh Fasihi 0.143 11.79

Heat 4 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Marie-Josée Ta Lou 0.161 10.78 , = 2 7 Daryll Neita 0.107 10.96 3 5 Crystal Emmanuel 0.148 11.18 4 6 Lorène Bazolo 0.134 11.31 5 3 Maja Mihalinec Zidar 0.130 11.54 6 9 Ángela Tenorio 0.137 11.59 7 2 Amya Clarke 0.153 11.71 - 8 Vitória Cristina Rosa - -

Heat 5 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce 0.128 10.84 2 5 Ajla Del Ponte 0.131 10.91 , 3 6 Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha 0.161 11.00 , 4 7 Gina Bass 0.134 11.12 , 5 2 Rafaéla Spanoudaki-Hatziriga 0.133 11.45 6 8 Inna Eftimova 0.145 11.46 7 9 Dutee Chand 0.148 11.54 8 3 Carla Scicluna 0.178 12.16

Heat 6 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Asha Philip 0.110 11.31 2 6 Tynia Gaither 0.141 11.34 3 9 Krystsina Tsimanouskaya 0.149 11.47 4 8 María Isabel Pérez 0.151 11.51 5 3 Natacha Ngoye Akamabi 0.137 11.52 6 2 Azreen Nabila Alias 0.173 11.91 - 7 Blessing Okagbare 0.147 11.05 In 2022, Blessing Okagbare was retrospectively disqualified from the games for anti-doping rule violations.

Heat 7 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Michelle-Lee Ahye 0.123 11.06 2 5 Shericka Jackson 0.170 11.07 3 7 Jenna Prandini 0.148 11.11 =, 4 8 Diana Vaisman 0.132 11.27 5 4 Hana Basic 0.147 11.32 6 2 Wei Yongli 0.174 11.48 7 9 Jasmine Abrams 0.148 11.49 8 3 Mudhawi Al-Shammari 0.167 11.81

Semi-finals Qualification Rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the final.

Wind readings- Heat 1: +0.0 m/s; Heat 2: -0.2 m/s; Heat 3: +0.3 m/s

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Elaine Thompson-Herah 0.157 10.76 2 6 Ajla Del Ponte 0.109 11.01 3 7 Dina Asher-Smith 0.148 11.05 4 8 Jenna Prandini 0.149 11.11 = 5 2 Khamica Bingham 0.150 11.22 6 3 Tynia Gaither 0.130 11.31 7 9 Tatjana Pinto 0.163 11.35 — 5 Blessing Okagbare — — Notes: Blessing Okagbare did not start as she was issued with a provisional suspension announced on the day of the race for failing a doping test held shortly before to the Olympics. She was later disqualified and issued with an 11-year ban for multiple doping violations.

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Marie-Josée Ta Lou 0.147 10.79 (.784), 2 6 Shericka Jackson 0.147 10.79 (.787), 3 4 Michelle-Lee Ahye 0.132 11.00 4 7 Alexandra Burghardt 0.151 11.07 5 9 Javianne Oliver 0.166 11.08 6 2 Crystal Emmanuel 0.149 11.21 7 3 Ge Manqi 0.145 11.22 8 8 Asha Philip 0.134 11.30

Semifinal 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce 0.136 10.73 2 7 Mujinga Kambundji 0.128 10.96 3 6 Teahna Daniels 0.144 10.98 , 4 4 Daryll Neita 0.135 11.00 5 9 Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha 0.142 11.07 6 2 Gina Bass 0.140 11.16 7 8 Murielle Ahouré 0.124 11.28 8 3 Anna Bongiorni 0.159 11.38

Final

Wind reading: -0.6 m/s