Adama Jammeh was the oldest competitor to represent The Gambia at the Olympic Games at age 23. He had not participated in any previous Summer Games. Janneh qualified for the Games because his fastest time of 20.45 seconds, set at the 2016 African Championships in Athletics Men's 200 metres, was 0.05 seconds faster than the required qualifying standard for his event, the men's 200 metres. In an interview with The Point before the Games he said, "I've competed at the World Athletics Championship in Beijing, China, and two African Championships and the Olympic Games will complete the set. I'm going to be so happy about it." Jammeh was drawn in the seventh heat on 16 August, finishing fifth out of eight athletes, with a time of 20.55 seconds. Overall he finished 39th out of 75 participants overall, and did not progress to the semi-finals because he was 0.26 seconds slower than the slowest athlete in his heat who made the event's later stages.