History of the Men's 100m World Record
Source:
World Athletics
Key Findings
🏆
Carl Lewis (USA) leads in 100m World Record (sec) with 9.86 in 2009.
📅
1991 recorded the highest combined total across all categories.
↔️
Gap in 2009: Carl Lewis (USA) is 1× larger than Usain Bolt (Jamaica).
About This Dataset
History of the Men's 100m World Record
The progression of the men's 100 metres sprint world record through history according to World Athletics records. The record has been broken 12 times since electronic timing was introduced in 1977, with Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds at the 2009 Berlin World Championships standing as the current mark for over 15 years.
Analysis
Carl Lewis (USA) (9.86), Leroy Burrell (USA) (9.85) and Donovan Bailey (Canada) (9.84) take the top three in 100m World Record (sec) in 2009. Values run from 9.86 at the top to 9.58 at the bottom in 100m World Record (sec), a spread of 0.28. First and second are separated by 0.01, so the leader sits inside the field rather than apart from it. Below the top two the field is tightly packed: the remaining 6 run from 9.84 down to 9.58 100m World Record (sec).
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- World Athletics
- Coverage
- 8 entities · 1988–2009 (8 years) · 8 observations
- Measure
- 100m World Record (sec)
- Last updated
- 6 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Missing years are left empty rather than estimated — no interpolation, no carrying a previous year forward.
- Change is measured between the first and last year in which an entity actually reported a value, so a series that starts late is not penalised for the years before it existed.
- The compound annual rate is (last ÷ first)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, using those same two reported years.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2009.
- An entity that reported nothing in the latest year is still listed — it follows the ranked entities in the table rather than being dropped.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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