Olympic Track and Field 2016: Complete Preview for Men's 100-Meter Dash
The world's fastest man.
That's the title conferred upon the Olympic men's 100-meter dash champion. And it's really the best distance for deciding such a thing. The 200-meter race isn't on a straightaway. Shorter races rely too heavily on how well sprinters uncoil themselves from the blocks—Usain Bolt doesn't bother with shorter sprints in indoor meets, and Justin Gatlin has only dabbled in indoor meets.
Over 100 meters, an athlete isn't just accelerating. Sprinters reach top speeds and have to hold them for the second half of the race. An analysis by Jimson Lee at SpeedEndurance shows how Bolt wins because over the crucial stretch between the 50-meter and 90-meter mark, he has been unquestionably the world's fastest man.
But can he still claim that title? Justin Gatlin has been chasing Bolt for years, and he has posted faster times than Bolt each of the past two years. Can he finally beat Bolt on the sport's biggest stage?
Schedule, TV and Live Stream Info
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Aug. 13: Preliminary round, 8:30 a.m. ET. Most of the participants are excused from this one. This is one of those events in which the IOC tries to give every country in the world a shot at being in the Games. So say hello to Richson Simeon of the Marshall Islands (personal best: 11.87 seconds), Tuvalu's Etimoni Timuani (11.72) and American Samoa's Isaac Silafau (no personal best given). Eight of these 22 athletes will advance.
Aug. 13: Heats, 11 a.m. Now it gets serious.
Aug. 14: Semifinals, 8 p.m. Now it gets really serious. Only eight runners will advance.
Aug. 14: Final, 9:25 p.m.
TV/Live Stream Info
NBCSN has "fencing, track and field" listed for their 8 a.m.-noon ET block on August 13. But that's no guarantee they'll show all the preliminaries. So if you want to see people from all over the globe lumbering down a track and having a story to tell their grandchildren, check the live streams at NBCOlympics.com.
NBC itself also lists track and field among the offerings when it signs on at 10 a.m. ET Saturday, so check there as well.
On Sunday: It's hard to imagine NBC showing anything else instead of this event final or the semifinals. But again, if you want to be absolutely sure, check the live streams.
Top Storylines
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Jamaica vs. USA
Bolt and Gatlin aren't the only representatives from the trans-Caribbean sprint rivalry. In any given recent year, the two countries account for most of the fastest times in the world. Yohan Blake joined Bolt in beating Gatlin in the 2012 final. Don't be surprised to see three Jamaicans and three Americans in the final, which will kick-start the posturing for the 4x100-meter relay.
Is It Clean?
Ever since Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of the gold medal in 1988, track and field sprinting has operated under a cloud of suspicion. Anti-doping efforts revved up in the early 2000s and caught a number of the sport's stars—including Gatlin, who still claims a masseur caused a positive test by rubbing testosterone cream on his legs but nevertheless served a four-year ban.
Jamaica, meanwhile, has had such a tough time with its own testing efforts that the entire anti-doping commission board resigned in 2013.
Farewell?
Usain Bolt says these will be his last Olympics. He'll only be 33 when the 2020 Olympics start, younger than Gatlin is now, and we've taken other retirement announcements with a grain of salt. But he's already not as fast as he used to be, at least not at this distance, and don't count on seeing him in the future.
Athletes to Watch
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Usain Bolt, Jamaica
The fastest ever. What else can we say?
Bolt won the 2012 final in 9.63 seconds. Only one man has ever gone faster, and his name is Usain Bolt, with a 9.58 in 2009. In the 100 meters alone, he has two Olympic golds and three world championships. (He false-started in 2011 or else he might have every major title since the Games were in Beijing.)
He withdrew from Jamaica's Olympic trials with a hamstring injury but received a medical exemption to make the team. Is he back to his old self? Or close enough to it to win?
Justin Gatlin, United States
Won gold in 2004, won the world championship in 2005, served a four-year doping ban, then came back faster. He set his personal best of 9.74 seconds last year. Also last year, he had the five fastest times in the world but lost the world championship to Bolt by 0.01 seconds.
The 34-year-old told NBC he has been out partying with his rival. But the two great sprinters push each other to be better.
Trayvon Bromell, United States
He just turned 21, but he already has a major honor to his name. Earlier this year, he won the world indoor championship at 60 meters in 6.47 seconds. He was also a promising third in the world championships (the outdoor kind) in Beijing last year. Already this year, he has tied his personal best of 9.84 seconds.
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Who Are the Sleepers?
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Jimmy Vicaut, France
He hasn't quite put it together in major championships yet. He missed out on the final in 2012 and wasn't a factor in the world championship finals of 2011 and 2015. But he has run a 9.86 this year and last year, and he's only 24.
Akani Simbine, South Africa
The 22-year-old ran a 9.89, albeit with a wind reading near the 2.0 meters per second limit, in July, staking a claim as a rare contender outside the USA, Caribbean and Europe.
Keston Bledman, Trinidad and Tobago
Jamaica gets most of the attention in the Caribbean, but the two-island nation has a proud tradition in this event as well. Ato Boldon, now an NBC commentator, took bronze in 1996 and silver behind Maurice Greene in 2000. Richard Thompson, not the famous guitarist, took silver in 2008. Go back to 1976, and you'll find Hasely Crawford with the nation's lone gold.
Bledman hasn't been under 10 seconds this year, but he has a personal best of 9.86, set in 2012 and tied last year.
Medal Predictions
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It's hard to bet against Usain Bolt. Last year, Gatlin had all the fastest times but couldn't beat Bolt when it mattered most. This year is shaping up as a replay.
But Bolt has that nagging hamstring. Gatlin hasn't shown any major problems.
As Spinal Tap's Mick Shrimpton proved, there is no "law of averages" that says Gatlin has to win sometime. But Bolt hasn't really been dominant since the 2008-2012 quadrennium, when he kept breaking the 9.7 mark as needed. He's human. Just like Gatlin.
Gold: Justin Gatlin, United States
Silver: Usain Bolt, Jamaica
Bronze: Trayvon Bromell, United States
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