Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

Men's 100 metres at the Games of the XI Olympiad
Venue	Olympiastadion Berlin, Germany
Dates	2 August 1936 (heats, quarterfinals) 3 August 1936 (semifinals, final)
Competitors	63 from 30 nations
Winning time	10.3
Medalists
Jesse Owens   United States   Ralph Metcalfe   United States   Tinus Osendarp   Netherlands
«1932	1948»

The men's 100 metres sprint was an event in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. They were in the Olympiastadion on 2 and 3 August. The final was won by 0.1 seconds by the American Jesse Owens. Ralph Metcalfe was also from America, and was in 2nd place. Tinus Osendarp of the Netherlands won 3rd place. This was their first medal in this event.

Background

This was the 10th time this event was in the Olympics. This event has been in every Olympics. There were 2 finalists from 1932 in this event. Ralph Metcalfe was in 2nd place in 1932. Takayoshi Yoshioka was in 6th place in 1932. The favorite runner in this race was Jesse Owens.

This was the first time that Afghanistan, Colombia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Peru, and Yugoslavia were in the Olympics. The United States was the only nation that had been in this event for every Olympic games.

Competition

The event had the same format from 1920–1932. There were heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. There were 12 heats. Each heat had 4–6 athletes. The 2 fastest runners in each heat went to the quarterfinals. The 24 quarterfinalists were put into 4 heats. Each heat had 6 athletes. The 3 fastest runners in each quarterfinal went to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals. Each semifinal had 6 racers. The 3 fastest racers in each semifinal went to the final. The final had 6 athletes.

Records

These were the world records and Olympic records before the 1932 Olympics. The times are in seconds.

World Record	10.2	Jesse Owens	Chicago, USA	June 20, 1936
Olympic Record	10.3	Eddie Tolan	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932
	10.3	Ralph Metcalfe	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932

Jesse Owens tied the Olympic record with 10.3 seconds in the last heat of the first round. In the quarterfinals, he tied his world record of 10.2 seconds. However, this time was not official because of the wind. In the finals, he ran 10.3 again. This would not count because of the wind.

Results

Heats

The 2 fastest runners in each heat went to the quarterfinals.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Lennart Strandberg	Sweden	10.7	Q
2	Takayoshi Yoshioka	Japan	10.8	Q
3	Manfred Kersch	Germany	10.8
4	Maurice Carlton	France
5	Aristidis Sakellariou	Greece

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Chris Berger	Netherlands	10.8	Q
2	Pat Dannaher	South Africa	11.0	Q
3	Bernard Marchand	Switzerland	11.2
4	Antonio Sande	Argentina	11.2
5	Julije Bauer	Yugoslavia	11.5

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Wil van Beveren	Netherlands	10.8	Q
2	Eric Grimbeek	South Africa	10.9	Q
3	Ruudi Toomsalu	Estonia	11.0
4	Antonio Salcedo	Philippines
5	José Domingo Sánchez	Colombia
6	Mohammad Khan	Afghanistan

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Gyula Gyenes	Hungary	10.7	Q
2	Monta Suzuki	Japan	10.7	Q
3	Palle Virtanen	Finland	10.9
4	Paul Bronner	France	11.1
5	Antonio Cuba	Peru
6	Elias Gutiérrez	Colombia

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Howard McPhee	Canada	10.8	Q
2	Lennart Lindgren	Sweden	10.8	Q
3	Robert Paul	France	11.0
4	George Fahoum	Egypt
5	Poh Kimseng	Republic of China

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Marthinus Theunissen	South Africa	10.7	Q
2	Gerd Hornberger	Germany	10.7	Q
3	Tomás Beswick	Argentina	10.9
4	Toivo Sariola	Finland
5	Sveinn Ingvarsson	Iceland
6	Oskar Ospelt	Liechtenstein

Heat 7

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	10.8	Q
2	József Sir	Hungary	10.8	Q
3	Nemesio de Guzman	Philippines	11.1
4	Fritz Seeger	Switzerland

Heat 8

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Erich Borchmeyer	Germany	10.7	Q
2	Bruce Humber	Canada	10.8	Q
3	Gábor Gerő	Hungary	11.3
4	Chen Kingkwan	Republic of China
5	Alfred Bencini	Malta

Heat 9

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Frank Wykoff	United States	10.6	Q
2	Arthur Sweeney	Great Britain	10.7	Q
3	Antonio Fondevilla	Argentina	11.0
4	Toivo Ahjopalo	Finland
5	Oswaldo Domingues	Brazil
6	Xaver Frick	Liechtenstein

Heat 10

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Tinus Osendarp	Netherlands	10.5	Q
2	Alan Pennington	Great Britain	10.6	Q
3	Lee Orr	Canada	10.6
4	Robert Struckl	Austria
5	Eric Whiteside	India

Heat 11

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Paul Hänni	Switzerland	10.7	Q
2	Cyril Holmes	Great Britain	10.8	Q
3	Renos Frangoudis	Greece	10.8
4	François Mersch	Luxembourg	10.9
5	Liu Changchun	Republic of China

Heat 12

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Jesse Owens	United States	10.3	Q, =OR
2	Kichizo Sasaki	Japan	11.0	Q
3	José de Almeida	Brazil	11.1
4	Dieudonné Devrindt	Belgium
5	Austin Cassar-Torreggiani	Malta

Quarterfinals

The fastest 3 runners in each quarterfinal went to the semifinal round.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Lennart Strandberg	Sweden	10.5	Q
2	Tinus Osendarp	Netherlands	10.6	Q
3	Frank Wykoff	United States	10.6	Q
4	Gerd Hornberger	Germany	10.7
5	Gyula Gyenes	Hungary
6	Cyril Holmes	Great Britain

Quarterfinal 2

Jesse Owens tied the world record for this event. However, there was too much wind. Therefore, this time did not count.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Jesse Owens	United States	10.2	Q
2	Paul Hänni	Switzerland	10.6	Q
3	József Sir	Hungary	10.7	Q
4	Takayoshi Yoshioka	Japan	10.8
5	Eric Grimbeek	South Africa	10.9
6	Lennart Lindgren	Sweden	11.0

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	10.5	Q
2	Alan Pennington	Great Britain	10.6	Q
3	Wil van Beveren	Netherlands	10.7	Q
4	Marthinus Theunissen	South Africa
5	Bruce Humber	Canada
6	Kichizo Sasaki	Japan

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Erich Borchmeyer	Germany	10.5	Q
2	Arthur Sweeney	Great Britain	10.6	Q
3	Howard McPhee	Canada	10.6	Q
4	Monta Suzuki	Japan	10.8
5	Chris Berger	Netherlands	11.0
6	Pat Dannaher	South Africa

Semifinals

The fastest 3 runners in each semifinal went to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Jesse Owens	United States	10.4	Q
2	Frank Wykoff	United States	10.5	Q
3	Lennart Strandberg	Sweden	10.5	Q
4	Paul Hänni	Switzerland	10.7
5	Wil van Beveren	Netherlands	10.8
6	Alan Pennington	Great Britain

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	10.5	Q
2	Tinus Osendarp	Netherlands	10.6	Q
3	Erich Borchmeyer	Germany	10.7	Q
4	Howard McPhee	Canada	10.7
5	Arthur Sweeney	Great Britain	10.7
6	József Sir	Hungary	10.9

Final

Wind: +2.7 m/s

Owens was in front of the race by the first 30 metres. At 70 metres, Metcalfe ran ahead of everyone else. At 50 metres, Strandberg got an injury in his ligament.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
	Jesse Owens	United States	10.3
	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	10.4
	Tinus Osendarp	Netherlands	10.5
4	Frank Wykoff	United States	10.6
5	Erich Borchmeyer	Germany	10.7
6	Lennart Strandberg	Sweden	10.9