100 metres, Women

In the quarter-finals of the US Olympic Trials there appeared to be a problem with the timing. Florence Griffith Joyner won the race by over four metres but the time seemed unusual – 10.49. The world record at the time was 10.76 and 100 metre world records were simply not broken by over ¼-seconds. The wind reading was 0.0, however, and the mark would be ratified as a world record. However, track statisticians still consider that the wind reading was incorrect and that it was likely a wind-aided mark. But that mattered little. In the semi-final, FloJo ran 10.70, bettering the previous world record and she surpassed that in the final with 10.61. These were all legal marks so the only consideration was which world record would count.

FloJo was the athletics star of the Seoul Olympics. A tall, lithe beauty, she had previously been a better 200 runner. But in 1988, she won gold medals in the 100, 200, and 4x100 relay, and ran a great anchor in the 4x400, helping the US to a silver medal in that race. Her 100 victory was easy, winning in a windy 10.54 over the defending champion Evelyn Ashford by three metres. In the eight rounds of the Olympic Games and Olympic Trials, she ran seven times faster than the previous world record, although three of them were wind-aided. As of 2020, her world record of 10.49 has still not been threatened.