Cinders to space-age spikes - history of the 100m

The men's 100m has come a staggeringly long way since American Tom Burke won the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.

Burke crossed the line in 11.80sec, more than two seconds off the current world record of 9.58sec held by sprint sensation Usain Bolt.

The Jamaican has played his own part in the resurgence of sprinting, transforming public perceptions of track and field when he won both the 100 and 200m in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in then-world record times.

But it is US athletes who have dominated the Olympic men's 100m, winning it 17 out of 27 finals.

Only Carl Lewis, in 1984 and 1988, has won the title in consecutive Games in recent times, a feat Bolt will try to match in London. Bolt and Lewis are just two of the names who have illuminated the 100m down the years. The 1981 film "Chariots of Fire" famously depicted the story of thinly-framed Briton Harold Abrahams, who became the first European to win the 100m title in Paris in 1924 in 10.6sec, running down a cinder track in a thick cotton outfit. While American Eddie Tolan equalled the world record of 10.38sec in the 1932 Games, his feat was soon overshadowed by the subsequent Berlin Olympics. The smooth-running black American Jesse Owens claimed four golds, including the 100m, to become the most successful athlete of the 1936 Games.

His performances were made more poignant because German leader Adolf Hitler had intended the Olympics to showcase his Nazi party's Aryan ideals. AFP