Competing in her first Summer Olympics at the age of 21, Charlene Attard was Malta's sole female representative in athletics. She qualified for the Games via a wildcard because her quickest time of 11.93 seconds was 0.51 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for the women's 100 metres. In an interview with the "Times of Malta" before the Olympics, Attard said she was looking forward to débuting at the Games. She revealed her preparations went untroubled and set herself the target of improving the national 100 metres record time. Attard participated in the tenth heat on 16 August, finishing sixth out of nine competitors, with a time of 12.20 seconds. Overall she placed 57th out of 85 participants and failed to advance beyond the first round after being 0.79 seconds behind the slowest runner in her heat who made the next stage.