Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

The 100 metres was the shortest track race in the 1896 Summer Olympics. The event had 3 heats (or rounds) and a final.  The first round of the men's 100 metres race was the first event run at modern Olympics. It was run on 6 April 1896. The final was on 10 April. There were 15 athletes in this event. These 15 athletes were from 8 different nations. The event was won by Thomas Burke of the United States. Fritz Hofmann of Germany was in 2nd place. The Hungarian Alajos Szokolyi and American Francis Lane tied for 3rd place.

## Background

Fritz Hofmann was the most famous sprinter at this time. In 1893, he won the Championship of the Continent. Thomas Burke was an American champion in the 400 metres. However, he was not known in the 100 metres. The best sprinters in the world at the timedid not run.

## Competition

There were 21 athletes in the first round. These athletes were in 3 heats (or rounds). Each heat had 7 runners. The fastest 2 athletes in each round would run in the final. 6 of the runners quit before the races began.

## Records

This was the world record (in seconds) before the 1896 olympics.

|rowspan="5"|World Record||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="5"|10.8|Luther Cary|Paris (FRA)|July 4, 1891|
|Cecil Lee|Brussels (BEL)|September 25, 1892|||
|Étienne De Re|Brussels (BEL)|August 4, 1893|||
|L. Atcherley|Frankfurt (GER)|April 13, 1895|||
|Harry Beaton|Rotterdam (NED)|August 28, 1895|||

A new Olympic record was made after the competition.

|Date|Event|Athlete|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|6 April 1896|Round 1||**11.8 s**|**OR**|

In the first heat, Francis Lane set the first Olympic Record in 12.2 seconds. This time was tied in Heat 2 by Thomas Curtis. In the 3rd heat, Thomas Burke ran 11.8 seconds. This became the Olympic Record until the 1900 Olympics.

## Schedule

The times when the event started were not written down. The races started after King George I of Greece arrived at 3 p.m.. The final was the first competition in the afternoon on Friday.

|colspan=2|Date|rowspan=2|Round|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Monday, 6 April 1896|Monday, 25 March 1896|**Round 1**||
|Friday, 10 April 1896|Friday, 29 March 1896|**Final**||

### Heats

The first round of heats were on 6 April. The first heat of the 100 metres was the first competition in the Olympic Games. Francis Lane won the first heat. This made him the first winner of a modern Olympic race. All of the heats were won by people from the United States.

#### Heat 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|align=left|Francis Lane|align=left||12.2|,|||
|2|align=left|Alajos Szokolyi|align=left||12.75||||
|3|align=left|Charles Gmelin|align=left||12.9||||
|4|align=left|Adolphe Grisel|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|||
|5|align=left|Kurt Doerry|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|||
|rowspan=2 data-sort-value=6|—|align=left|Leonidasz Manno|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9|||
|align=left|Luis Subercaseaux|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9|||||

#### Heat 2

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|align=left|Thomas Curtis|align=left||12.2,||||
|2|align=left|Alexandros Chalkokondylis|align=left||12.75||||
|3|align=left|Launceston Elliot|align=left||12.9||||
|4|align=left|Eugen Schmidt|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|||
|5|align=left|George Marshall|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|||
|rowspan=2 data-sort-value=6|—|align=left|Alexandre Tuffère|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9|||
|align=left|Unknown|align=left|Unknown (France or Hungary)|data-sort-value=99.9|||||

#### Heat 3

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|align=left|Thomas Burke|align=left||11.8|,|||
|2|align=left|Fritz Hofmann|align=left||12.75||||
|3|align=left|Friedrich Traun|align=left||13.6||||
|rowspan=2|4–5|align=left|Georgios Gennimatas|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown||
|align=left|Henrik Sjöberg|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown||||
|rowspan=2 data-sort-value=6|—|align=left|Alfred Flatow|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9|||
|align=left|Konstantinos Mouratis|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9|||||

### Final

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||align=left|Thomas Burke|align=left||12.0|||
||align=left|Fritz Hofmann|align=left||12.2|||
|rowspan=2||align=left|Francis Lane|align=left||12.6||
|align=left|Alajos Szokolyi|align=left||12.6||||
|5|align=left|Alexandros Chalkokondylis|align=left||12.6|||
|data-sort-value=6|—|align=left|Thomas Curtis|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||

## Results summary

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|| Final || Notes|||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||align=left|Thomas Burke|align=left||11.8|12.0||||
||align=left|Fritz Hofmann|align=left||12.6|12.2||||
|rowspan=2||align=left|Francis Lane|align=left||12.2|12.6|||
|align=left|Alajos Szokolyi|align=left||12.8|12.6|||||
|5|align=left|Alexandros Chalkokondylis|align=left||12.8|12.6||||
|6|align=left|Thomas Curtis|align=left||12.2|||||
|rowspan=9||align=left|Launceston Elliot|align=left||12.9|rowspan=21 data-sort-value=99.9|Did not advance||
|align=left|Charles Gmelin|align=left||12.9||||||
|align=left|Friedrich Traun|align=left||13.5||||||
|align=left|Eugen Schmidt|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|4th in semifinal||||
|align=left|Adolphe Grisel|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|4th in semifinal||||
|align=left|Georgios Gennimatas|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|4th–5th in semifinal||||
|align=left|Henrik Sjöberg|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|4th–5th in semifinal||||
|align=left|George Marshall|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|5th in semifinal||||
|align=left|Kurt Doerry|align=left||data-sort-value=60.0|Unknown|5th in semifinal||||
|rowspan=12 data-sort-value=16|—|align=left|Louis Adler|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||
|align=left|Harald Arbin|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Nándor Dáni|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Ralph Derr|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Alfred Flatow|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Leonidasz Manno|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Konstantinos Mouratis|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Luis Subercaseaux|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Jean Tournois|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Alexandre Tuffère|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|Charles Vanoni|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||
|align=left|István Zachar|align=left||data-sort-value=99.9||||||

## References

- (Digitally available at la84foundation.org )
- (Excerpt available at la84foundation.org )

## Infobox (olympic event)

- **event**: Men's 100 metres
- **games**: 1896 Summer
- **image**: 100m sprint 1896 Olympics.jpg
- **caption**: The start of the 100 metres final, according to an artist.
- **venue**: Panathenaic Stadium
- **dates**: 6 April 1896
(first round)
10 April 1896
(final)
- **competitors**: 15
- **nations**: 8
- **win value**: 12.0
- **gold**: Thomas Burke (athlete), Thomas Burke
- **goldnoc**: USA
- **silver**: Fritz Hofmann (athlete), Fritz Hofmann
- **silvernoc**: GER
- **bronze**: Alajos Szokolyi
- **bronzenoc**: HUN
- **bronze2**: Francis Lane
- **bronzenoc2**: USA
- **next**: Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres, 1900