The 100m world record has evolved with Noah Lyles emerging as a top contender to challenge Usain Bolt’s legendary mark.
The 100m has long been seen as the acid test for the world’s best sprinters with the holder of the men’s world record often referred to as the ‘world’s fastest man’.
Records were hand-timed before automatic timing for a world record became a requirement in 1977. This was also when records began being timed in hundredths instead of tenths of seconds.
Since 1987, the men’s 100m world record has never stood for more than three years and three months. Until, that is, Jamaican legend, Usain Bolt set the current world record in August 2009 – almost 13 years ago.
Bolt’s time of 9.58 seconds saw him reach an astonishing 44.72km/h when he hit full stride in the 100m final of the Berlin 2009 World Athletics Championships.
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No other sprinter has broken the 9.60 second barrier, with Bolt registering 9.63 seconds at London 2012 and Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake both hitting 9.69 seconds set in 2009 and 2012 respectively. Pulse Sports looks back at the evolution of the 100m world record.
The progression of the world record
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Jesse Owens American athlete, four times champion at the Olympic Games in Berlin, August 1936. (Photo Credit: Imago)
Just two months before the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Jesse Owens broke the official 100m world record with a stunning run of 10.2 seconds at the NCAA Track and Field Championships.
Four golds followed at Berlin 1936 as he put in a legendary performance in the capital of Germany. However, while his 100m record was equalled on 10 occasions, it took a full 20 years for anyone to go faster.
When the record did fall, it was another American, Willie Williams who took the title of ‘World’s Fastest Man’ setting a time of 10.01 seconds in 1956. After West Germany’s Armin Hary ran 10 seconds flat in 1960, attention turned to the first man to break the 10-second mark.
The switch to automatic timing
The world would have to wait eight years for the USA’s Jim Hines to set a time of 9.9 seconds in June 1968, which he followed up with an automatically timed 9.95 seconds at the Olympic Games Mexico City 1968. The record stood for 14 years, eight months and 19 days.
It took until 1991 for someone to officially break 9.9 seconds when the USA’s nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis clocked a time of 9.86 in Tokyo. Eight years later, Maurice Green of the USA recorded a time of 9.78 to finally dip under 9.8 seconds in Athens, Greece.
Jamaican dominance
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Jamaican athletes, Usain Bolt (L) and Yohan Blake, pose with the national flag after finishing first and second respectively in the men s 100-meter final at the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 London Olympics
Since 2005, athletes from Jamaica have dominated the 100m world record list, with Asafa Powell setting four world records with a lowest of 9.735 before the emergence of Olympic great Usain Bolt.
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Usain Bolt’s former competitor opens about how the Jamaican demoralised his opponents even before the race.
Bolt first broke the world record when he set a time of 9.72 in May 2008, before smashing his own mark two months later as he won Olympic gold at Beijing 2008 in a time of 9.69.
But the best was yet to come. In a thrilling sprint that has never been matched to this day, Bolt crossed the finish line at the Berlin 2009 World Athletics Championships in 9.58 to set a world record that is now lasted 16 years.
Noah Lyles’ era
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Noah Lyles
The retirement of Usain bolt in 2017 paved the way for another sprinter to lay claim to the ‘World’s fastest man’ title. Noah Lyles has embraced the challenge, winning the 2024 Paris Olympic Games 100m gold in 9.79 seconds. The American clocked 9.83 seconds at the 2023 World Championships, but at 27, Noah Lyles seems to be at the peak of his powers.
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Usain Bolt has rejected Noah Lyles’ claim that he is the world’s fastest man, insisting the American must break his records to earn the title.
The 2025 World Championships presents him another opportunity to try and get closer to Usain Bolt’s record. Will anyone come close to the great man as the world’s best sprinters go head-to-head for the title of ‘World’s Fastest Man’?
