Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres
| Men's 100 metres at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
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The finalists awaiting starters orders
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| Venue | Olympic Stadium | ||||||||||||
| Date | 4–5 August 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 75 from 61 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 9.63 s | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Usain Bolt |
 Jamaica
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Yohan Blake |
Jamaica
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Justin Gatlin |
 United States
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The men's 100 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom was held at the Olympic Stadium on 4–5 August 2012. The competition comprised four rounds: a preliminary round for entrants without the minimum qualifying standard, a heats round, followed by three semi-finals of eight athletes each, which then reduced to eight athletes for the final.
Leading up to this Olympics, defending champion Usain Bolt was the star of the sport having set world records in winning the 100 metres and 200 metres in the previous Olympics, and 2 more world records in winning the 100m and 200m at the 2009 world championships. In the 2011 world championships, the 100 metres was won by Yohan Blake after a false start by Bolt. Later in the season, Blake ran a new 200 metres personal best only .07 behind Bolt's world record. At the 2012 Jamaican Olympic Trials, Blake beat Bolt in both events.
In the final, Bolt, started slow out of the blocks and was behind Blake and Gatlin, but accelerated with 50 meters to go, to win the gold medal and was around 5 meters ahead of the competition at the finish line. Bolt set a new Olympic record (beating his own record set at the 2008 Olympic Games) of 9.64 seconds. Blake edged past Gatlin, who in turn held off a closing Gay at the finish line.
Usain Bolt was the second athlete after Carl Lewis (1984, 1988) to retain the men's 100m championship. His winning time was the second fastest time ever behind his own world record. Yohan Blake finished second in 9.75 seconds. Blake's time was the fastest ever not to win a gold medal. Former world record holder and 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin won the bronze medal in 9.79 seconds. The race set a number of records, including: the first time that the top 3 finished under 9.80 seconds; the first time that the top 5 finished in under 9.90 seconds; the first time that the four fastest men in 100m history all competed; and 7 of the 8 men ran in under 10 seconds, with only Asafa Powell finished in (11.99) after an injury 60 meters into the race. Apart from Powell, each runner's time was the fastest-ever for his respective placing. Blake, Gatlin, Gay, and Bailey all ran times that would have won at least silver in any previous Olympic final.
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