Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

The men's 100 metres was a sprinting event in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. It was on July 14, 1900. There were 20 athletes. These athletes were from 9 different nations. Frank Jarvis won the event. He was from the United States. Walter Tewksbury was in 2nd place. He was also from the United States. Australia won their first medal in the 100 metres. Stan Rowley won a bronze medal in this event.

## Background

This was the second time this event happened. None of the runners also ran in the 1896 Olympics. The American Arthur Duffey had just won the AAA Championships for 100 yards. He was the favorite for the competition. 7 people had ran the unofficial world record of 10.8 for this event. One of these people was Isaac Westergren of Sweden. He was also in this competition.

There were no athletes from France. Australia, Bohemia, India, and Italy were in this event for the first time.

The 100 metres was not the shortest sprint. The 60 meters was the shortest sprint. This has only happened in 1900 and 1904.

## Records

These were the world records and Olympic records before the 1900 Olympics. The times are all in seconds.

|rowspan="8"|World Record||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="8"|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/Main (GER)|April 13, 1895|||
|Harry Beaton|Rotterdam (NED)|August 28, 1895|||
|Harald Anderson-Arbin|Helsingborg (SWE)|August 9, 1896|||
|Isaac Westergren|Gävle (SWE)|September 11, 1898|||
|Isaac Westergren|Gävle (SWE)|September 10, 1899|||
|11.8|Thomas Burke|Athens (GRE)|April 6, 1896 (NS)||

In the first heat of the first round, Arthur Duffey ran 11.4 seconds. This beat the Olympic record. In the second heat of the first round, Walter Tewksbury ran 11.4 seconds. This tied the Olympic record. In the third heat of the first round, Frank Jarvis ran 10.8 seconds. This tied the unofficial world record. In the second semifinal, Tewksbury also ran 10.8 seconds. This would tie the unofficial world record.

## Competition

The competition had 4 rounds. There was the heats, the semifinals, the repechage, and the final. The fastest 2 runners in the heats would run in the semifinals. In the semifinals, 12 men were put into each 3 semifinals. Each semifinals had 4 runners. In the semifinal, the 1st-place runner ran in the finals. The 2nd and 3rd place runners ran in the repechage. In the repechage, there were 6 runners. Only the runner of the repechage would run in the final.

## Schedule

|Date|Time|Round|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Saturday, 14 July 1900|**11:15** || **First round** **Semifinals** **Repechage** **Final**||

### First round

In the first round, there were six heats. The fastest 2 runners in each heat could run in the semifinal round.

#### Heat 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Arthur Duffey||11.4|,|
|2|Frederick Moloney||11.5||
|3|Václav Nový||Unknown||

#### Heat 2

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Walter Tewksbury||11.4|, =|
|2|Thaddeus McClain||11.4||
|3|Pál Koppán||Unknown||

#### Heat 3

This heat was the fastest heat. It would have 2 medallists. Jarvis tied the world record.

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Frank Jarvis||10.8|, =|
|2|Stan Rowley||10.9||
|3|Umberto Colombo||Unknown||
|4|Julius Keyl||Unknown||

#### Heat 4

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Clark Leiblee||11.4||
|2|Kurt Doerry||11.5||
|3|Johannes Gandil||Unknown||

#### Heat 5

The fifth heat was the only heat that was not won by an American.

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Norman Pritchard||11.4||
|2|Edmund Minahan||11.5||
|3|Ernő Schubert||Unknown||
|4|Isaac Westergren||Unknown||

#### Heat 6

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Charles Burroughs||11.4||
|2|Dixon Boardman||11.5||
|3|Henry Slack||Unknown||

### Semifinals

There were three semifinals. Each semifinal had 4 runners. The fastest runner in each semifinals went to the final. The 2nd and 3rd place runners ran in the repechage. The winner of the repechage would also go to the finals.

#### Semifinal 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Arthur Duffey||11.0||
|2|Stan Rowley||11.2||
|3|Charles Burroughs||Unknown||
|4|Dixon Boardman||Unknown||

#### Semifinal 2

Tewksbury tied the world record.

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Walter Tewksbury||10.8|, =|
|2|Clark Leiblee||10.9||
|3|Frederick Moloney||Unknown||
|—|Kurt Doerry||||

#### Semifinal 3

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Frank Jarvis||11.2||
|2|Thaddeus McClain||11.3||
|3|Norman Pritchard||Unknown||
|4|Edmund Minahan||Unknown||

### Repechage

The repechage was a very close race. Rowley only beat Pritchard by 1 inches. He would be allowed to run in the final round.

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Stan Rowley||11.0||
|2|Norman Pritchard||11.0||
|3|Clark Leiblee||Unknown||
|4–6|Charles Burroughs||Unknown||
|Thaddeus McClain||Unknown|||
|Frederick Moloney||Unknown|||

### Final

Duffey was faster than everybody else at first. However, he pulled a tendon halfway in the race. Jarvis beat Tewksbury by two feet. Rowley  was half of a yard behind.

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Frank Jarvis||11.0|
||Walter Tewksbury||11.1|
||Stan Rowley||11.2|
|—|Arthur Duffey|||

### Citations

- International Olympic Committee.
- De Wael, Herman. _Herman's Full Olympians_: "Athletics 1900".  Accessed 18 March 2006. Available electronically at http://users.skynet.be/hermandw/olymp/ath1900.html .

## Infobox (olympic event)

- **event**: Men's 100 metres
- **games**: 1900 Summer
- **image**: File:JarvisFrank 1900.jpg
- **caption**: Frank Jarvis
- **venue**: Bois de Boulogne
- **date**: July 14
- **competitors**: 20
- **nations**: 9
- **win value**: 11.0
- **longnames**: yes
- **gold**: Frank Jarvis (athlete), Frank Jarvis
- **goldnoc**: USA
- **silver**: Walter Tewksbury
- **silvernoc**: USA
- **bronze**: Stan Rowley
- **bronzenoc**: AUS
- **prev**: Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres, 1896
- **next**: Athletics at the 1904 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres, 1904