| | Event type

100 metres, Men

Date	6 – 7 July 1912
Status	Olympic
Location	Stockholms Olympiastadion, Stockholm
Participants	70 from 22 countries

The event was considered wide-open at the beginning of the year, as no sprinter had been dominant since the 1908 Olympics. From 1909-1911 three different American sprinters had won the AAU Championship (William Martin [1909], James Rosenberger [1910], Gwinn Henry [1911]), but none of them competed at Stockholm in this event. South Africa’s George Patching was also present, who had won the 1912 AAA Championship earlier in the year. At the three United States Olympic Trials, Ira Courtney won the western trial, Clement Wilson the central and Howard Drew the eastern trial. In the eastern meet, Ralph Craig finished second to Drew. The world record for 100 metres was 10.5, shared by three Germans, Richard Rau, Erwin Kern, and Emil Ketterer. All three competed at Stockholm, but Ketterer did not finish in round one, and Rau and Kern were eliminated in the semi-finals.

In the first round, America’s Donald Lippincott broke the Olympic record in heat 16 with a 10.6 clocking. The six semi-finals advanced only the winner of each heat to the final. Five of the finalists were from the United States - Ralph Craig, Howard Drew, Alvah Meyer, Frank Belote, and Lippincott. The fastest times in the semis were 10.7, posted by both Craig and Meyer.

The final began without Drew, who had strained a muscle at the finish of his semi-final heat and could not start. The final was marked by multiple false starts - listed as six, seven, or eight in various sources. After one of the false starts, Craig and Lippincott ran the entire 100 metres. Craig noted many years later, “There were seven false starts, and I made one of them. Another American who had competed in the Paris Games - those 1900 Games were kind of horrendous, you know - he told me if you ever get to the Olympics, if anyone moves a muscle, you go too. Don Lippincott and I ran the whole hundred meters on one false start. The foreign officials were totally incompetent, and I was afraid not to keep running even though they fired the recall gun. I was told, don’t take a chance - go! - so I did. They did fire the recall gun, but I didn’t believe it.”

After the false starts, Patching took the early lead but he was eventually defeated by three Americans, with Craig winning narrowly. Craig would later make the 1948 Olympic team as a yachtsman, and he carried the U.S. flag at the 1948 Opening Ceremony, but he was only an alternate and did not actually compete at the 1948 London Olympics.

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	R1	SF	Final
1	–	Ralph Craig	USA	11.2 (1 h17)	10.7 (1 h4)	10.8 (1)	Gold
2	–	Alvah Meyer	USA	11.3 (1 h9)	10.7 (1 h3)	10.9est (2)	Silver
3	–	Donald Lippincott	USA	10.6 (1 h16)	10.7 (1 h5)	10.9est (3)	Bronze
4	–	George Patching	RSA	– (2 h13)	10.9 (1 h2)	11.0est (4)
5	–	Frank Belote	USA	11.0 (1 h11)	11.1 (1 h6)	11.0est (5)
1 h1 r2/3	–	Howard Drew	USA	11.0 (1 h15)	11.0 (1 h1)	–
2 h1 r2/3	–	Ira Courtney	USA	11.2 (1 h3)	– (2 h1)	–
2 h2 r2/3	–	Knut Lindberg	SWE	11.6 (1 h8)	11.1est (2 h2)	–
2 h3 r2/3	–	David Jacobs	GBR	10.8 (1 h10)	– (2 h3)	–
2 h4 r2/3	–	Richard Rau	GER	11.5 (1 h6)	10.9est (2 h4)	–
2 h5 r2/3	–	Willie Applegarth	GBR	– (2 h16)	– (2 h5)	–
2 h6 r2/3	–	Reuben Povey	RSA	– (2 h5)	– (2 h6)	–
3 h1 r2/3	–	Peter Gerhardt	USA	11.1 (1 h12)	– (3 h1)	–
3 h2 r2/3	–	Richard Rice	GBR	11.4 (1 h4)	– (3 h2)	–
3 h3 r2/3	–	Frank Lukeman	CAN	– (2 h12)	– (3 h3)	–
3 h4 r2/3	–	William Stewart	ANZ	11.0 (1 h7)	– (3 h4)	–
3 h5 r2/3	–	Bedřich Vygoda	BOH	– (2 h8)	– (3 h5)	–
3 h6 r2/3	–	Rupert Thomas	USA	– (2 h14)	– (3 h6)	–
4 h1 r2/3	–	Erwin Kern	GER	– (2 h15)	– (4 h1)	–
4 h3 r2/3	–	Pál Szalay	HUN	at ½ metre (2 h2)	– (4 h3)	–
4 h6 r2/3	–	Ivan Möller	SWE	11.5 (1 h2)	– (4 h6)	–
5 h1 r2/3	–	Karl August Luther	SWE	12.8 (1 h1)	– (5 h1)	–
5 h6 r2/3	–	Arthur Anderson	GBR	11.0 (1 h14)	– (5 h6)	–
6 h1 r2/3	–	Vilmos Rácz	HUN	at 2 metres (2 h6)	– (6 h1)	–
AC h2 r2/3	–	Joseph Aelter	BEL	– (2 h7)	– (AC h2)	–
AC h2 r2/3	–	Franco Giongo	ITA	– (2 h9)	– (AC h2)	–
AC h3 r2/3	–	Rolf Smedmark	SWE	– (2 h4)	– (DNF h3)	–
AC h4 r2/3	–	René Mourlon	FRA	– (2 h11)	– (AC h4)	–
AC h4 r2/3	–	István Jankovich	HUN	at 1 metre (2 h3)	– (AC h4)	–
AC h4 r2/3	–	Ferenc Szobota	HUN	at 1 metre (2 h17)	– (AC h4)	–
AC h5 r2/3	–	Army Howard	CAN	11.0 (1 h13)	– (AC h5)	–
AC h5 r2/3	–	Vic d'Arcy	GBR	11.2 (1 h5)	– (AC h5)	–
AC h5 r2/3	–	Clement Wilson	USA	– (2 h10)	– (AC h5)	–
3 h2 r1/3	–	Rudolf Rauch	AUT	– (3 h2)	–	–
3 h3 r1/3	–	Pierre Failliot	FRA	– (3 h3)	–	–
3 h5 r1/3	–	António Stromp	POR	– (3 h5)	–	–
3 h6 r1/3	–	Ture Persson	SWE	– (3 h6)	–	–
3 h11 r1/3	–	Henry Macintosh	GBR	– (3 h11)	–	–
3 h12 r1/3	–	Fritz Weinzinger	AUT	– (3 h12)	–	–
3 h13 r1/3	–	Hal Heiland	USA	– (3 h13)	–	–
3 h14 r1/3	–	Frank McConnell	CAN	– (3 h14)	–	–
3 h15 r1/3	–	Julien Boullery	FRA	– (3 h15)	–	–
3 h16 r1/3	–	Max Herrmann	GER	– (3 h16)	–	–
3 h17 r1/3	–	Ragnar Ekberg	SWE	– (3 h17)	–	–
4 h3 r1/3	–	Henry Blakeney	GBR	– (4 h3)	–	–
4 h11 r1/3	–	Hal Beasley	CAN	– (4 h11)	–	–
4 h12 r1/3	–	Alex Pedersen	NOR	– (4 h12)	–	–
4 h13 r1/3	–	Pavel de Shtiglits	RUS	– (4 h13)	–	–
4 h14 r1/3	–	Skotte Jacobsson	SWE	– (4 h14)	–	–
4 h17 r1/3	–	Fritz Fleischer	AUT	– (4 h17)	–	–
AC h3 r1/3	–	Ladislav Jiránek-Strana	BOH	– (AC h3)	–	–
AC h3 r1/3	–	Pablo Eitel	CHI	– (AC h3)	–	–
AC h6 r1/3	–	Robert Schürrer	FRA	– (AC h6)	–	–
AC h6 r1/3	–	Dimitrios Triantafyllakos	GRE	– (AC h6)	–	–
AC h6 r1/3	–	Leopolds Lēvenšteins	RUS	– (AC h6)	–	–
AC h7 r1/3	–	Charles Lelong	FRA	– (AC h7)	–	–
AC h7 r1/3	–	Jan Grijseels	NED	– (AC h7)	–	–
AC h7 r1/3	–	Richard Schwarz	RUS	– (AC h7)	–	–
AC h8 r1/3	–	Jón Halldórsson	ISL	– (AC h8)	–	–
AC h8 r1/3	–	Dušan Milošević	SRB	– (AC h8)	–	–
AC h9 r1/3	–	Georges Rolot	FRA	– (AC h9)	–	–
AC h9 r1/3	–	Robert Duncan	GBR	– (AC h9)	–	–
AC h10 r1/3	–	Václav Labík-Gregan	BOH	– (AC h10)	–	–
AC h10 r1/3	–	Marius Delaby	FRA	– (AC h10)	–	–
AC h10 r1/3	–	Herman Sotaaen	NOR	– (AC h10)	–	–
AC h12 r1/3	–	Duncan Macmillan	GBR	– (AC h12)	–	–
AC h13 r1/3	–	Emil Ketterer	GER	– (DNF h13)	–	–
AC h15 r1/3	–	James Barker	GBR	– (DNF h15)	–	–
AC h16 r1/3	–	Ervin Szerelemhegyi	HUN	– (AC h16)	–	–
AC h16 r1/3	–	Yahiko Mishima	JPN	– (AC h16)	–	–
DNS	–	Maurice Colman	BEL	–	–	–
DNS	–	Jean Samazeuilh	FRA	–	–	–
DNS	–	Angelo Rossi	ITA	–	–	–
DNS	–	Tadeusz Garczyński	AUT	–	–	–
DNS	–	Henri Puncet	FRA	–	–	–
DNS	–	Jean Schols	BEL	–	–	–
DNS	–	Francesco Bicchi	ITA	–	–	–
DNS	–	Émile Lesieur	FRA	–	–	–
DNS	–	Zdislav Prágr	BOH	–	–	–
DNS	–	Tivadar Csató	HUN	–	–	–
DNS	–	Charles Rice	USA	–	–	–
DNS	–	André Gauthier	FRA	–	–	–
DNS	–	Ray Lange	USA	–	–	–
DNS	–	István Ondrus	HUN	–	–	–
DNS	–	Ernest Rapin	FRA	–	–	–
DNS	–	Vilmos Rádi	HUN	–	–	–
DNS	–	Seth Levin	SWE	–	–	–
DNS	–	Yury Zakharov	RUS	–	–	–
DNS	–	Gaston Wens	BEL	–	–	–
DNS	–	Bobby Kerr	CAN	–	–	–
DNS	–	Rodolfo Hammersley	CHI	–	–	–
DNS	–	Leopoldo Palma	CHI	–	–	–
DNS	–	Nils Fixdal	NOR	–	–	–
DNS	–	Emil Grandell	SWE	–	–	–
DNS	–	Eric Lindholm	SWE	–	–	–
DNS	–	Gösta Möller	SWE	–	–	–
DNS	–	Knut Stenborg	SWE	–	–	–

Round One (6 July 1912 — 13:30-14:15)

Top two in each heat advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Karl August Luther	SWE	12.8	Qwalkover

Heat Two

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Ivan Möller	SWE	11.5	Q
2	–	Pál Szalay	HUN	at ½ metre	Q
3	–	Rudolf Rauch	AUT	–

Heat Three

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Ira Courtney	USA	11.2	Q
2	–	István Jankovich	HUN	at 1 metre	Q
3	–	Pierre Failliot	FRA	–
4	–	Henry Blakeney	GBR	–
AC	–	Ladislav Jiránek-Strana	BOH	–
AC	–	Pablo Eitel	CHI	–

Heat Four

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Richard Rice	GBR	11.4	Q
2	–	Rolf Smedmark	SWE	–	Q

Heat Five

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Vic d'Arcy	GBR	11.2	Q
2	–	Reuben Povey	RSA	–	Q
3	–	António Stromp	POR	–

Heat Six

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Richard Rau	GER	11.5	Q
2	–	Vilmos Rácz	HUN	at 2 metres	Q
3	–	Ture Persson	SWE	–
AC	–	Robert Schürrer	FRA	–
AC	–	Dimitrios Triantafyllakos	GRE	–
AC	–	Leopolds Lēvenšteins	RUS	–

Heat Seven

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	William Stewart	ANZ	11.0	Q
2	–	Joseph Aelter	BEL	–	Q
AC	–	Charles Lelong	FRA	–
AC	–	Jan Grijseels	NED	–
AC	–	Richard Schwarz	RUS	–

Heat Eight

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Knut Lindberg	SWE	11.6	Q
2	–	Bedřich Vygoda	BOH	–	Q
AC	–	Dušan Milošević	SRB	–
AC	–	Jón Halldórsson	ISL	–

Heat Nine

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Alvah Meyer	USA	11.3	Q
2	–	Franco Giongo	ITA	–	Q
AC	–	Robert Duncan	GBR	–
AC	–	Georges Rolot	FRA	–

Heat Ten

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	David Jacobs	GBR	10.8	Q=OR
2	–	Clement Wilson	USA	–	Q
AC	–	Marius Delaby	FRA	–
AC	–	Herman Sotaaen	NOR	–
AC	–	Václav Labík-Gregan	BOH	–

Heat Eleven

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Frank Belote	USA	11.0	Q
2	–	René Mourlon	FRA	–	Q
3	–	Henry Macintosh	GBR	–
4	–	Hal Beasley	CAN	–

Heat Twelve

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Peter Gerhardt	USA	11.1	Q
2	–	Frank Lukeman	CAN	–	Q
3	–	Fritz Weinzinger	AUT	–
4	–	Alex Pedersen	NOR	–
AC	–	Duncan Macmillan	GBR	–

Heat Thirteen

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Army Howard	CAN	11.0	Q
2	–	George Patching	RSA	–	Q
3	–	Hal Heiland	USA	–
4	–	Pavel de Shtiglits	RUS	–
DNF	–	Emil Ketterer	GER	–

Heat Fourteen

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Arthur Anderson	GBR	11.0	Q
2	–	Rupert Thomas	USA	–	Q
3	–	Frank McConnell	CAN	–
4	–	Skotte Jacobsson	SWE	–

Heat Fifteen

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Howard Drew	USA	11.0	Q
2	–	Erwin Kern	GER	–	Q
3	–	Julien Boullery	FRA	–
DNF	–	James Barker	GBR	–

Heat Sixteen

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Donald Lippincott	USA	10.6	QOR
2	–	Willie Applegarth	GBR	–	Q
3	–	Max Herrmann	GER	–
AC	–	Ervin Szerelemhegyi	HUN	–
AC	–	Yahiko Mishima	JPN	–

Heat Seventeen

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time
1	–	Ralph Craig	USA	11.2	Q
2	–	Ferenc Szobota	HUN	at 1 metre	Q
3	–	Ragnar Ekberg	SWE	–
4	–	Fritz Fleischer	AUT	–

Semi-Finals (6 July 1912 — 15:45)

Winner in each heat advanced to the final.