Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metres hurdles

The women's 100 metres hurdles at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 17–19 August at the Beijing National Stadium.[1][2]

Women's 100 metres hurdles at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Venue	Beijing National Stadium
Dates	17 August 2008 (heats) 18 August 2008 (semi-finals) 19 August 2008 (final)
Competitors	40 from 31 nations
Winning time	12.54 s
Medalists
Dawn Harper  United States Sally McLellan  Australia Priscilla Lopes-Schliep  Canada

Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men	women
10,000 m	men	women
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men	women
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men	women
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men	women
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men	women
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men	women
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men

The qualifying standards were 12.96 s (A standard) and 13.11 s (B standard).[3]

Coming into the Olympics, Lolo Jones had the fastest time of the year, 12.45 in the semi-finals of the U.S. Olympic Trials. Jones had also won those trials convincingly in a wind aided 12.29 (coming within .08 of the 20-year-old world record).

The first round was distinguished by five runners finishing within .03 of each other. In the semi-final, Jones separated from the field by .19, setting a wind legal personal best 12.43 and a new fastest time of the year.

In the final, Sally McLellan was out fast, clearly the first over the first hurdle. By the fourth hurdle she had almost a full stride lead over the wall of competitors across the track behind her, with Jones starting to gain a slight advantage. But McLellan couldn't hold the lead. Over the next two hurdles, Jones stormed by, with the rest of the field gaining on McLellan. Dawn Harper was starting to separate ahead of the wall. Jones continued to pull away to a full stride on Harper as McLellan fell back to run even with the wall. At the ninth hurdle, Jones didn't get her lead leg high enough to clear the barrier. Her foot hit the slat square on. She rode the hurdle to the ground, landing awkwardly and losing her forward momentum. She had to jump long strides just to clear the final hurdle but was losing ground on every step. Harper took the hurdles cleanly and held her edge to cross the line for gold. Behind her, McLellan, Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, Damu Cherry, Delloreen Ennis-London and Brigitte Foster-Hylton (the wall) hit the line together. .02 separated second through sixth with McLellan getting the photo finish knod over Lopes-Schliep for the medals. Four years later Harper and McLellan (under her married name of Pearson) would also get gold and silver, but in the opposite order.