Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metres
| Women's 100 metres at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
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| Venue | Beijing National Stadium | ||||||||||||
| Dates | August 16 (heats) August 17 (semifinal and final) |
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| Competitors | 85 from 69 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 10.78 s | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Shelly-Ann Fraser |
 Jamaica
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Sherone Simpson |
Jamaica
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Kerron Stewart |
Jamaica
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The Women's 100 metres at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 16 (heats) and 17 (final) at the Beijing National Stadium.
The qualifying standards for the 2008 event were 11.32 s (A standard) and 11.42 s (B standard).
Jamaica dominated the event with athlete Shelly-Ann Fraser taking the gold and Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart taking the silver. Officially, no bronze medal was awarded as Simpson and Stewart finished with an equal time of 10.98 seconds in the second place. Taking all three medals, it was a Jamaican sweep.
While in the set position, American sprinter Torri Edwards twitched before the gun, and apparently anticipated a recall; however, there was no recall gun, and Edwards finished last. After the race, US Track & Field officials appealed for a recall, claiming that Edwards had false started, but the appeal was rejected and the result stood. Despite Edward's assertions, she actually had a reaction time of 0.179 seconds, which was not the fastest or the slowest of the eight runners. It is possible, therefore, that when she twitched, Edwards had not applied enough pressure on the blocks to trigger a warning, or she might have twitched her upper body but left her feet solid."
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.
All times shown are in seconds. The following abbreviations are used:
Qualification: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 10 fastest (q) advance to the Round 2.
Qualification: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 1 fastest (q) advance to the Semifinals.
Qualification rule: First 4 in each heat (Q) advance to the final.
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