What is the world record for 100 yard dash?

June 21, 1963

Bob Hayes, a sturdy running back/sprinter from Florida A&M, runs 9.1 seconds in the 100-yard dash not once but twice at the AAU national Track and Field championships in St. Louis.

However, only Hayes' performance in the semifinals is allowed to stand as a world record. That's because the wind was 7.75 miles per hour in the final, above the allowable 4.473 mph for record consideration.

Running with his elbows out and his knees uncommonly high, the thick-shouldered, thick-muscled Hayes bolts into the lead at the start of the semifinal. The 20-year-old senior-to-be turns it up another gear in the middle 50 yards and breaks the world record of 9.2 seconds set by America's Frank Budd in 1961 and tied by Canada's Harry Jerome (twice) in 1962.

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Hayes wins the AAU final for the second straight year. He will go on to win the gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the 1964 Olympics and then become a Pro Bowl wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys.

9.2 seconds - the official world record for the 100 yard dash is held by Frank Budd from New Jersey. Budd ran track for Villanova University in Philadelphia. In 1960, he represented Team USA at the Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. He placed 5th in the 100 meter sprint, and his relay team made it to the finals in the 4 x 100 meter relay. In 1962, he broke the world record at the AAU Meet with a finish time of 9.2 seconds. He then went on to play wide receiver in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles. Several people have run the 100 yard dash in 9.1 seconds and 9.0 seconds, but these achievements have not displaced Frank Budd from his status as the official record holder because they were not timed electronically. The regulations of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) state that runs are only legal if achieved with the use of fully automatic timing, a wind speed below 2.0 m/s, and without the use of performance enhancing substances. The 100 yard dash is no longer an event in international competition. It is rarely an event in American competitions. It has been replaced by the 100 meter sprint, a slightly longer race. The world record for the 100 meter sprint is 9.58 seconds. It is held by Usain Bolt from Jamaica. He set this record on August 16, 2009 at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. Among women, the world record for the 100 meter sprint is 10.49 seconds. It is held by Florence Griffith-Joyner from the United States. She set the record on July 16, 1988 in Indianapolis. Her record is likely to stand for a VERY long time. It is fully 0.15 of second faster than the second fastest time ever run by a woman. By comparison, less than 0.08 second separate the times of the other 7 women to have run the 100 meter sprint in less than 11 seconds. Joyner's win was probably assisted by a tail wind. The sensor measuring wind that day was not functioning properly. Many suspect that her win was also assisted by performance enhancing drugs (steroids), but there was never any proof, so her record stands.