Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

Men's 100 metres at the Games of the X Olympiad
Venue	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Dates	July 31, 1932 (heats, quarterfinals) August 1, 1932 (semifinals, final)
Competitors	33 from 14 nations
Winning time	10.3 seconds
Medalists
Eddie Tolan  United States Ralph Metcalfe  United States Arthur Jonath  Germany

Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeple		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Decathlon		men

The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, United States, were held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on July 31 and August 1. The photo finish final was won by American Eddie Tolan in a world record equalling time of 10.38 seconds. Teammate Ralph Metcalfe won the silver and was credited with the same time as Tolan. Defending Olympic champion and world record holder Percy Williams of Canada did not advance past the semifinals.

Results

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Eddie Tolan	United States	10.38	EWR
	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	10.38	EWR
	Arthur Jonath	Germany	10.50
4	George Simpson	United States	10.53
5	Danie Joubert	23x15px South Africa	10.60
6	Takayoshi Yoshioka	Japan	10.79

Key: EWR = Equalled world record; names in blue qualified for next round; OR=Olympic record; EOR= Equalled Olympic record

Note that the runners were judged to have finished the race when they had crossed the line. In 1933, the rules were changed such that the runners finished the race when they reached the line. Had the current rules been in effect then Metcalfe would have been the winner. Melcalfe reached the finish line first, but Tolan, a shorter man, crossed the line first.

Records

These are the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1932 Summer Olympics.

World Record	10.3	Percy Williams	Toronto (CAN)	August 9, 1930
Olympic Record	10.6	Donald Lippincott	Stockholm (SWE)	July 6, 1912
	10.6	Charlie Paddock	Antwerp (BEL)	August 16, 1920
	10.6	Harold Abrahams	Paris (FRA)	July 6/7 1924
	10.6	Robert McAllister	Amsterdam (NED)	July 29/30 1928
	10.6	Percy Williams	Amsterdam (NED)	July 30, 1928
	10.6	Wilfred Legg	Amsterdam (NED)	July 30, 1928

Arthur Jonath equalled the standing Olympic record with 10.6 in the third heat of the first round. Eddie Tolan set a new Olympic record with 10.4 in the first heat of the quarterfinals, and equalled the world record of 10.3 in the final along with Ralph Metcalfe.

Preliminaries

Heats

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Eddie Tolan	United States	10.9
2	José de Almeida	Brazil	11.0
3	Fernando Ortíz	23x15px Mexico	11.2
4	André Théard	23x15px Haiti	11.4
5	António Rodrigues	Portugal	11.5
DNF	Fred Reid	Great Britain

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	George Simpson	United States	10.9
2	Ernie Page	Great Britain	11.1
3	Andrej Engel	Czechoslovakia	11.2
4	Bunoo Sutton	India	11.4
5	Liu Changchun	China	11.5

Heat three

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Jonath	Germany	10.6	EOR
2	Allan Elliot	New Zealand	10.8
3	Izuo Anno	Japan	10.9
4	Ronald Vernieux	India	11.0
5	Samuel Giacosa	Argentina	11.1

Heat four

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Carlos Bianchi	Argentina	10.8
2	Helmut Körnig	Germany	11.0
3	Percy Williams	23x15px Canada	11.1
4	Jesús Moraila	23x15px Mexico	11.2

Heat five

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	11.0
2	Bert Pearson	23x15px Canada	11.1
3	Angelos Lambrou	Greece	11.3
4	Fernando Ramírez	23x15px Mexico	11.4

Heat six

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Danie Joubert	23x15px South Africa	11.0
2	Harold Wright	23x15px Canada	11.2
3	Ernst Geerling	Germany	11.3
4	Ricardo Guimarães	Brazil	11.4

Heat seven

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Takayoshi Yoshioka	Japan	10.9
2	Chris Berger	Netherlands	11.1
3	Héctor Berra	Argentina	11.2
4	Stanley Fuller	Great Britain	11.3
5	Mario Marques	Brazil	11.5

Quarterfinals

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Eddie Tolan	United States	10.53	OR
2	Carlos Bianchi	Argentina	10.5
3	Percy Williams	23x15px Canada	10.7
4	Chris Berger	Netherlands	10.7
5	Fernando Ortíz	23x15px Mexico	11.0

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	George Simpson	United States	10.74
2	Harold Wright	23x15px Canada	10.9
3	Helmut Körnig	Germany	11.0
4	Andrej Engel	Czechoslovakia	11.1

Heat three

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	10.77
2	Takayoshi Yoshioka	Japan	10.8
3	Allan Elliot	New Zealand	10.9
4	Ernie Page	Great Britain	10.9
5	Ernst Geerling	Germany	11.1

Heat four

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Jonath	Germany	10.68
2	Danie Joubert	23x15px South Africa	10.6
3	Bert Pearson	23x15px Canada	10.7
4	José de Almeida	Brazil	10.8
5	Izuo Anno	Japan	10.9

Semifinals

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Eddie Tolan	United States	10.81
2	Danie Joubert	23x15px South Africa	10.81
3	Takayoshi Yoshioka	Japan	10.83
4	Percy Williams	23x15px Canada	10.91
5	Allan Elliot	New Zealand	11.0
6	Helmut Körnig	Germany	11.2

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	10.65
2	George Simpson	United States	10.70
3	Arthur Jonath	Germany	10.71
4	Carlos Bianchi	Argentina	10.73
5	Bert Pearson	23x15px Canada	10.95
6	Harold Wright	23x15px Canada	11.1

Key: EWR = Equalled world record; names in blue qualified for next round; OR=Olympic record; EOR= Equalled Olympic record; DNF = did not finish

External links

• 1932 Summer Olympics results: Men's 100 metres, from http://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2010-01-27.
• [1], from http://www.omegawatches.com/; retrieved 2012-10-01.