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

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|
|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.

### Heats

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

#### Heat 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Lennart Strandberg||10.7||
|2|Takayoshi Yoshioka||10.8||
|3|Manfred Kersch||10.8||
|4|Maurice Carlton||||
|5|Aristidis Sakellariou||||

#### Heat 2

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Chris Berger||10.8||
|2|Pat Dannaher||11.0||
|3|Bernard Marchand||11.2||
|4|Antonio Sande||11.2||
|5|Julije Bauer||11.5||

#### Heat 3

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Wil van Beveren||10.8||
|2|Eric Grimbeek||10.9||
|3|Ruudi Toomsalu||11.0||
|4|Antonio Salcedo||||
|5|José Domingo Sánchez||||
|6|Mohammad Khan||||

#### Heat 4

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Gyula Gyenes||10.7||
|2|Monta Suzuki||10.7||
|3|Palle Virtanen||10.9||
|4|Paul Bronner||11.1||
|5|Antonio Cuba||||
|6|Elias Gutiérrez||||

#### Heat 5

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Howard McPhee||10.8||
|2|Lennart Lindgren||10.8||
|3|Robert Paul||11.0||
|4|George Fahoum||||
|5|Poh Kimseng||||

#### Heat 6

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Marthinus Theunissen||10.7||
|2|Gerd Hornberger||10.7||
|3|Tomás Beswick||10.9||
|4|Toivo Sariola||||
|5|Sveinn Ingvarsson||||
|6|Oskar Ospelt||||

#### Heat 7

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Ralph Metcalfe||10.8||
|2|József Sir||10.8||
|3|Nemesio de Guzman||11.1||
|4|Fritz Seeger||||

#### Heat 8

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Erich Borchmeyer||10.7||
|2|Bruce Humber||10.8||
|3|Gábor Gerő||11.3||
|4|Chen Kingkwan||||
|5|Alfred Bencini||||

#### Heat 9

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Frank Wykoff||10.6||
|2|Arthur Sweeney||10.7||
|3|Antonio Fondevilla||11.0||
|4|Toivo Ahjopalo||||
|5|Oswaldo Domingues||||
|6|Xaver Frick||||

#### Heat 10

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Tinus Osendarp||10.5||
|2|Alan Pennington||10.6||
|3|Lee Orr||10.6||
|4|Robert Struckl||||
|5|Eric Whiteside||||

#### Heat 11

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Paul Hänni||10.7||
|2|Cyril Holmes||10.8||
|3|Renos Frangoudis||10.8||
|4|François Mersch||10.9||
|5|Liu Changchun||||

#### Heat 12

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Jesse Owens||10.3|,|
|2|Kichizo Sasaki||11.0||
|3|José de Almeida||11.1||
|4|Dieudonné Devrindt||||
|5|Austin Cassar-Torreggiani||||

### Quarterfinals

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

#### Quarterfinal 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Lennart Strandberg||10.5||
|2|Tinus Osendarp||10.6||
|3|Frank Wykoff||10.6||
|4|Gerd Hornberger||10.7||
|5|Gyula Gyenes||||
|6|Cyril Holmes||||

#### 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||10.2||
|2|Paul Hänni||10.6||
|3|József Sir||10.7||
|4|Takayoshi Yoshioka||10.8||
|5|Eric Grimbeek||10.9||
|6|Lennart Lindgren||11.0||

#### Quarterfinal 3

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Ralph Metcalfe||10.5||
|2|Alan Pennington||10.6||
|3|Wil van Beveren||10.7||
|4|Marthinus Theunissen||||
|5|Bruce Humber||||
|6|Kichizo Sasaki||||

#### Quarterfinal 4

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Erich Borchmeyer||10.5||
|2|Arthur Sweeney||10.6||
|3|Howard McPhee||10.6||
|4|Monta Suzuki||10.8||
|5|Chris Berger||11.0||
|6|Pat Dannaher||||

### Semifinals

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

#### Semifinal 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Jesse Owens||10.4||
|2|Frank Wykoff||10.5||
|3|Lennart Strandberg||10.5||
|4|Paul Hänni||10.7||
|5|Wil van Beveren||10.8||
|6|Alan Pennington||||

#### Semifinal 2

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Ralph Metcalfe||10.5||
|2|Tinus Osendarp||10.6||
|3|Erich Borchmeyer||10.7||
|4|Howard McPhee||10.7||
|5|Arthur Sweeney||10.7||
|6|József Sir||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||10.3|
||Ralph Metcalfe||10.4|
||Tinus Osendarp||10.5|
|4|Frank Wykoff||10.6|
|5|Erich Borchmeyer||10.7|
|6|Lennart Strandberg||10.9|

## Infobox (olympic event)

- **event**: Men's 100 metres
- **games**: 1936 Summer
- **venue**: Olympiastadion (Berlin), Olympiastadion
Berlin, Nazi Germany, Germany
- **dates**: 2 August 1936 (heats, quarterfinals)
3 August 1936 (semifinals, final)
- **competitors**: 63
- **nations**: 30
- **win value**: 10.3
- **gold**: Jesse Owens
- **goldnoc**: USA
- **silver**: Ralph Metcalfe
- **silvernoc**: USA
- **bronze**: Tinus Osendarp
- **bronzenoc**: NED
- **prev**: Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres, 1932
- **next**: Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres, 1948