100 metres, Men

Archie Hahn was the favorite in this event, although this was solely based on his 1904 victory, as he had been unimpressive in the intervening years. Sorely missed were Britain’s Jack Morton, 1904-06 AAA champion, and America’s Arthur Duffey, probably the world’s top sprinter, but one who had been disqualified in 1905 for professionalism through some rather specious reasoning. It was thought that James E. Sullivan, who worked for Spalding, ruled against Duffey because Duffey refused to wear Spalding spikes. The world record at the start of 1906 was 10 4/5, held by at least eight different sprinters.

There were some problems with the starter in this event as, in the early rounds, there were several false starts, and many flyers were unrecalled. This was apparently due, in part, to the athlete’s unfamiliarity with the starting instructions, which were given in Greek. The final, however, was an absolutely fair start. Archie Hahn defended the Olympic title he had won in St. Louis, winning fairly comfortably by about a yard. The fight for second was very close, but Fay Moulton edged ahead of Nigel Barker by inches near the line. The other three finalists were not close.