Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metres

The Women's 100 metres competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. The event was held at the University Olympic Stadium on October 14–15.[1]

Women's 100 metres at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venue	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Date	October 14–15
Competitors	42 from 22 nations
Winning time	11.0 WR
Medalists
Wyomia Tyus  United States Barbara Ferrell  United States Irena Szewińska  Poland

Official Video on YouTube

Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
80 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men

The race was won by defending champion Wyomia Tyus. She became the first person to defend the championship at 100 metres, a feat later duplicated by Carl Lewis, Gail Devers, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Usain Bolt. Director Bud Greenspan filmed Tyus casually dancing behind her starting blocks before the Olympic final. When interviewed later she said she was doing the "Tighten Up" to stay loose. American commentator Dwight Stones suggests this intimidated her opponents.

In the final, American teenager Margaret Bailes gained a step advantage at the gun. That quickly disappeared as Tyus seized control of the race. The chase was on. The next chasers appeared to be her American teammate Barbara Ferrell and Australian teenager Raelene Boyle. Coming on strong toward the finish was Polish veteran Irena Kirszenstein. Tyus dipped at the finish, but there was nobody near her. Ferrell and Boyle were escorted to the holding area, but Officials reading the new fully automatic time system corrected the results to declare Kirszenstein the bronze medalist. Tyus set the world record while Boyle set the List of world junior record in fourth place.

Tyus was credited with 11.0 hand timed, breaking the tie at 11.1 with several women in this race. Two years later, Chi Cheng, 7th place in this race, equalled her time. Her automatic time of 11.07 was the first noted automatic time record of this event. In the subsequent Olympics, that time was equalled by Renate Stecher, but Tyus' time was downgraded to 11.08. By the time fully automatic timing became mandatory, January 1, 1977, Annegret Richter's 11.01 from the 1976 Olympics had displaced them.