1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 100 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	100 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	102 athletes from 70 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 23, 1988 (preliminary round and quarter-finals) September 24, 1988 (semi-finals and final)
Medalist Carl Lewis ( USA )   Linford Christie ( GBR )   Calvin Smith ( USA )

The men's 100-meter run at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held on September 23 and 24, 1988 in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 102 athletes took part.

The American Carl Lewis became Olympic champion with a new world record time . He won ahead of Britons Linford Christie and Calvin Smith , also from the USA.

The final race was overshadowed by one of the most spectacular doping scandals in sports history. The Canadian Ben Johnson had won the final in 9.79 s ahead of Lewis, Christie and Smith. Three days later, Johnson was convicted of doping. He was stripped of his Olympic victory, world record and also his world championship title from 1987 . Furthermore, now that several decades have passed, the overall outcome of this race seems extremely questionable with today's knowledge. This 100 meter run has often been referred to as "the dirtiest race ever". It was not just Ben Johnson who had a proven doping rule violation. Carl Lewis, who is still the official 100-meter Olympic champion, had previously been shown to have three banned substances in tests in the USA. The sixth, Johnson's compatriot Desai Williams, later confessed to taking illegal drugs. All other finalists with the exception of Calvin Smith and Robson da Silva were proven doping offenses in later years. With some hair-raising explanations and excuses, the athletes concerned tried to talk their way out.

Christian Haas started for the Federal Republic of Germany, but failed in the quarter-finals. The GDR was represented by Sven Matthes , he was also eliminated in the quarter-finals. The Austrian Andreas Berger also did not make it through the quarter-finals. The Liechtenstein Markus Büchel failed in the preliminary round. Runners from Switzerland did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	Carl Lewis ( USA )	9.99 s	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987	DOP : Ben Johnson ( Canada ) / official: Carl Lewis ( USA )	DOP : 9.87 s / official: 9.93 s	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Linford Christie ( Great Britain )	10.15 s	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American champion 1987	Lee McRae ( USA )	10.26 s	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Juan Núñez ( Dominican Republic )	10.22 s	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Robson da Silva ( Brazil )	10.39 s	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion	Talal Mansour ( Qatar )	10.41 s	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	John Myles-Mills ( Ghana )	10.25 s	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	DOP : 9.87 s / official: 9.93 s	DOP : Ben Johnson ( Canada ) / official: Carl Lewis ( USA )	Rome , Italy	August 30, 1987
Olympic record	9.95 s	Jim Hines ( USA )	Mexico City Final , Mexico	October 14, 1968

Comment on the World Cup title and the world record:
At the time of the Seoul Games , Ben Johnson was still the reigning world champion and world record holder. After his positive doping test after the 100-meter final in Seoul were this title and this record subsequently stripped him and Carl Lewis enlisted as World Cup -Second and second in the world rankings.

Preliminary round

Date: September 23, 1988

The athletes participated in a total of 13 heats. The first three athletes per run qualified for the quarter-finals. Furthermore, the nine fastest drivers, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

Jerome Jeremiah was the first Vanuatu athlete to compete in the Olympic Games.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Robson da Silva	Brazil	10.37 s
2	Ezio Madonia	Italy	10.40 s
3	Hsin-Fu Cheng	Chinese Taipei	10.48 s
4th	Thierry Lauret	France	10.56 s
5	Boeviyoulou Lawson	Togo	10.59 s
6th	Leung Wing Kwong	Hong Kong	10.82 s
7th	Mohamed Fahd Al-Bishi	Saudi Arabia	10.85 s
8th	Jerome Jeremiah	Vanuatu	10.96 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Calvin Smith	United States	10.28 s
2	Attila Kovács	Hungary	10.39 s
3	Afdiharto Lestari	Indonesia	10.40 s
4th	Andrei Rasin	Soviet Union	10.58 s
5	Henri Ndinga	People's Republic of the Congo	10.74 s
6th	Fabian Muyaba	Zimbabwe	10.75 s
7th	Mustafa camel Salmi	Algeria	11.08 s
8th	Markus Büchel	Liechtenstein	11.21 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Talal Mansour	Qatar	10.42 s
2	Juan Núñez	Dominican Republic	10.47 s
3	Amadou M'Baye	Senegal	10.64 s
4th	Fabian Whymns	Bahamas	10.70 s
5	Neville Hodge	American Virgin Islands	10.73 s
6th	Horace Dove-Edwin	Sierra Leone	10.89 s
7th	Alexandre Yougbaré	Burkina Faso	10.90 s
8th	Henrico Atkins	Barbados	11.01 s

Forward 4

Ehab Fuad Ahmed Nagi was the first track and field athlete from South Yemen to take part in the Olympic Games.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Emmanuel Tuffour	Ghana	10.31 s
2	Koji Kurihara	Japan	10.46 s
3	Andrew Smith	Jamaica	10.49 s
4th	Zheng Chen	People's Republic of China	10.51 s
5	István Tatár	Hungary	10.52 s
6th	Christian Haas	BR Germany	10.54 s
7th	John Hou	Papua New Guinea	10.96 s
8th	Ehab Fuad Ahmed Nagi	South Yemen	11.53 s

Forward 5

GDR runner Sven Matthes reached the quarter-finals and was eliminated there in sixth place in his run

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Linford Christie	Great Britain	10.19 s
2	Max Morinière	France	10.34 s
3	Sven Matthes	GDR	10.35 s
4th	Li Tao	People's Republic of China	10.47 s
5	Samuel Nchinda-Kaya	Cameroon	10.60 s
6th	Shiun-Long Lee	Chinese Taipei	10.69 s
7th	William Trott	Bermuda	10.69 s
8th	Frank Maziya	Swaziland	11.52 s

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Chidi Imoh	Nigeria	10.62 s
2	Charles-Louis Seck	Senegal	10.64 s
3	Issa Alassane-Oussèni	Benin	10.72 s
4th	John Regis	Great Britain	10.76 s
5	Mothobi Kharitse	Lesotho	10.97 s
6th	Robert Loua	Guinea	11.20 s
7th	Samuel Birch	Liberia	11.68 s
-	Pedro Agostinho	Portugal		DNF

Forward 7

The South Korean Chang Jae-keun, who was registered for the run, did not run.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Raymond Stewart	Jamaica	10.22 s
2	Pierfrancesco Pavoni	Italy	10.42 s
3	Vitaly Sawin	Soviet Union	10.52 s
4th	György Fetter	Hungary	10.54 s
5	Khaled Ibrahim Jouma	Bahrain	10.80 s
6th	Muhammad Afzal	Pakistan	10.91 s
7th	Claude Roumain	Haiti	11.22 s

Forward 8

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ben Johnson	Canada	10.37 s
2	Cai Jianming	People's Republic of China	10.55 s
3	Sim Deok-seop	South Korea	10.56 s
4th	Carlos Moreno	Chile	10.70 s
5	Abdullah Salem Al-Khalidi	Oman	10.90 s
6th	Mohamed Shah Jalal	Bangladesh	10.94 s
7th	Joseph Ssali	Uganda	10.95 s
8th	St. Clair Soleyne	Antigua and Barbuda	11.17 s

Forward 9

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Desai Williams	Canada	10.24 s
2	Peter Wekesa	Kenya	10.50 s
3	Olapade Adenics	Nigeria	10.56 s
4th	Eduardo Nava	Mexico	10.68 s
5	Jailto Bonfim	Brazil	10.75 s
6th	Lindel Hodge	British Virgin Islands	10.79 s
7th	Visut Watanasin	Thailand	10.88 s
8th	Arménio Fernandes	Angola	10.92 s

Forward 10

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Vladimir Krylov	Soviet Union	10.34 s
2	Arnaldo da Silva	Brazil	10.44 s
3	Michele Lazazzera	Italy	10.47 s
4th	Kennedy Ondiek	Kenya	10.51 s
5	Takahiko Kasahara	Japan	10.62 s
6th	James Flemming	American Virgin Islands	10.70 s
7th	Jihad Salame	Lebanon	11.49 s
8th	Gilbert Bessi	Monaco	11.55 s

Forward 11

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Dennis Mitchell	United States	10.37 s
2	Iziaq Adeyanju	Nigeria	10.45 s
3	Ousmane Diarra	Mali	10.53 s
4th	Oliver Daniels	Liberia	10.68 s
5	Luís Filipe Cunha	Portugal	10.80 s
6th	Evaristo Ortíz	Dominican Republic	11.01 s
7th	Nguyễn Đình Minh	Vietnam	11.09 s
8th	Secundino Borabota	Equatorial Guinea	11.52 s

Forward 12

Ismail Asif Waheed was the first Maldives athlete to compete in the Olympic Games.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Myles-Mills	Ghana	10.31 s
2	Andreas Berger	Austria	10.40 s
3	Barrington Williams	Great Britain	10.51 s
4th	Patrick Stevens	Belgium	10.51 s
5	Enrique Talavera	Spain	10.61 s
6th	Tomohiro awasawa	Japan	10.71 s
7th	Dominique Canti	San Marino	11.11 s
8th	Ismail Asif Waheed	Maldives	11.49 s

Forward 13

Peauope Suli was the first athlete from Tonga to take part in the Olympic Games.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Carl Lewis	United States	10.14 s
2	Jean-Charles Trouabal	France	10.39 s
3	José Javier Arqués	Spain	10.44 s
4th	John Mair	Jamaica	10.44 s
5	Harouna Pale	Burkina Faso	10.76 s
6th	Peauope Suli	Tonga	10.94 s
7th	Maloni Bole	Fiji	11.19 s

Quarter finals

Date: September 23, 1988

The first two athletes qualified for the semifinals in the six races. Furthermore, the four fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , advanced. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Linford Christie	Great Britain	10.11 s
2	Dennis Mitchell	United States	10.13 s
3	Ben Johnson	Canada	10.17 s
4th	John Mair	Jamaica	10.41 s
5	Charles-Louis Seck	Senegal	10.42 s
6th	Li Tao	People's Republic of China	10.53 s
7th	Kennedy Ondiek	Kenya	10.57 s
8th	Ousmane Diarra	Mali	10.61 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Desai Williams	Canada	10.16 s
2	Arnaldo da Silva	Brazil	10.25 s
3	Vladimir Krylov	Soviet Union	10.26 s
4th	Attila Kovács	Hungary	10.27 s
5	Michele Lazazzera	Italy	10.50 s
6th	Thierry Lauret	France	10.51 s
7th	Zheng Chen	People's Republic of China	10.72 s
8th	Chidi Imoh	Nigeria	11.44 s

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Raymond Stewart	Jamaica	10.25 s
2	Juan Núñez	Dominican Republic	10.33 s
3	Sven Matthes	GDR	10.36 s
4th	Jean-Charles Trouabal	France	10.41 s
5	José Javier Arqués	Spain	10.43 s
6th	Amadou M'Baye	Senegal	10.45 s
7th	Barrington Williams	Great Britain	10.55 s
8th	Christian Haas	BR Germany	10.57 s

Run 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Calvin Smith	United States	10.16 s
2	Olapade Adenics	Nigeria	10.30 s
3	Andreas Berger	Austria	10.34 s
4th	Emmanuel Tuffour	Ghana	10.37 s
5	Talal Mansour	Qatar	10.38 s
6th	Patrick Stevens	Belgium	10.50 s
7th	Hsin-Fu Cheng	Chinese Taipei	10.54 s
8th	György Fetter	Hungary	10.55 s

Run 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Carl Lewis	United States	9.99 s
2	Robson da Silva	Brazil	10.24 s
3	Iziaq Adeyanju	Nigeria	10.32 s
4th	Pierfrancesco Pavoni	Italy	10.33 s
5	Vitaly Sawin	Soviet Union	10.36 s
6th	Koji Kurihara	Japan	10.49 s
7th	István Tatár	Hungary	10.68 s
8th	Issa Alassane-Ousséni	Benin	10.55 s

Run 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Myles-Mills	Ghana	10.21 s
2	Afdiharto Lestari	Indonesia	10.32 s
3	Max Morinière	France	10.37 s
4th	Ezio Madonia	Italy	10.38 s
5	Peter Wekesa	Kenya	10.43 s
6th	Sim Deok-seop	South Korea	10.55 s
7th	Andrew Smith	Jamaica	10.63 s
8th	Cai Jianming	People's Republic of China	10.76 s

Semifinals

Date: September 24, 1988

The first four athletes (highlighted in light blue) qualified for the final in both races.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Carl Lewis	United States	9.97 s
2	Calvin Smith	United States	10.15 s
3	Raymond Stewart	Jamaica	10.18 s
4th	Desai Williams	Canada	10.24 s
5	Arnaldo da Silva	Brazil	10.32 s
6th	Olapade Adenics	Nigeria	10.33 s
7th	Afdiharto Lestari	Indonesia	10.39 s
8th	John Myles-Mills	Ghana	10.43 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ben Johnson	Canada	10.03 s
2	Linford Christie	Great Britain	10.11 s
3	Dennis Mitchell	United States	10.23 s
4th	Robson da Silva	Brazil	10.24 s
5	Attila Kovács	Hungary	10.31 s
6th	Juan Núñez	Dominican Republic	10.35 s
7th	Iziaq Adeyanju	Nigeria	10.60 s
DNS	Vladimir Krylov	Soviet Union	10.60 s

Olympic Champion Carl Lewis, USA

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Carl Lewis	United States	9.92 s	WR
2	Linford Christie	Great Britain	9.97 s
3	Calvin Smith	United States	9.99 s
4th	Dennis Mitchell	United States	10.04 s
5	Robson da Silva	Brazil	10.11 s
6th	Desai Williams	Canada	10.11 s
7th	Raymond Stewart	Jamaica	12.26 s
DOP	Ben Johnson	Canada	9.79

Date: September 24, 1988

Wind: +1.1 m / s

All three US runners and two Canadians qualified for the final. The starting field was completed by a British, a Jamaican and a Brazilian.

A duel was expected between the four-time Olympic champion in 1984 Carl Lewis and the Canadian Ben Johnson, who was still considered a world champion and world record holder at that time . His world championship title and world record - as well as his victory in this race in Seoul - were later revoked after a positive doping test, as already described above. US sprinter Calvin Smith and Briton Linford Christie were other medal candidates.

In the finale, Ben Johnson got off to the best start and dominated the race to the finish. The Canadian stayed four hundredths of a second below his own world record from Rome, which was still valid at the time . Carl Lewis crossed the finish line in second, Linford Christie in third, ahead of Calvin Smith.

Following the positive doping test after the race, Ben Johnson was disqualified. Carl Lewis won his fifth gold medal at the Olympic Games. His 9.92 s were declared the new world record. Linford Christie advanced to silver, with Calvin Smith taking the bronze medal. Smith was the first sprinter to run a time under ten seconds and thus only received a bronze medal.

All other athletes also moved up one place. Dennis Mitchell was now fourth, Robson da Silva fifth and Desai Williams sixth. Raymond Stewart, who suffered a tendon injury at around 40 meters and could no longer run with full strength, was classified as seventh in this scandalous race.

In the 21st Olympic final, Carl Lewis won the 14th US gold medal. He is the first sprinter to repeat his Olympic victory.

Web links

• SportsReference 100 m , accessed January 21, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: p. 218f, English / French (PDF; 25.6 MB), accessed on January 21, 2018

Video

• 1988 Olympic 100 Meter Final - The Greatest Race in History: Ben Johnson 9.79 , published April 23, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed January 21, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 9.79 - The dirtiest race of all time on geo-television.de, accessed on January 21, 2018
2. ↑ 25 years ago today: The Race of the Super-Doper , Focus Online September 24, 2013, accessed on January 21, 2018
3. ↑ IAAF records. 100m men , accessed January 21, 2018
4. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 218f, English / French (PDF; 25.6 MB), accessed on January 21, 2018
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 219, English / French (PDF; 25.6 MB), accessed on January 21, 2018
6. ↑ Ben Johnson: A Hero Traps , Der Tagesspiegel August 12, 2009, accessed January 21, 2018