| Final | time | | | 1. Eddie Tolan |  United States | 10.38s | =WR | | 2. Ralph Metcalfe | United States | 10.38s | =WR | | 3. Arthur Jonath |  Germany | 10.50s | | | 4. George Simpson | United States | 10.53s | | | 5. Danie Joubert |  South Africa | 10.60s | | | 6. Takayoshi Yoshioka |  Japan | 10.79s | |
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| | | Venue: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Capp.: 100,000. 33 competitors from 17 nations. |
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| | | First 3 from each Semi advanced to Final. |
| Semi 1 | time | | | 1. Eddie Tolan | United States | 10.81s | Q | | 2. Danie Joubert | South Africa | 10.81s | Q | | 3. Takayoshi Yoshioka | Japan | 10.83s | Q | | 4. Percy Williams |  Canada | 10.91s | | | 5. Allan Elliot |  New Zealand | 11.0s | | | 6. Helmut Körnig | Germany | 11.2s | |
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| Semi 2 | time | | | 1. Ralph Metcalfe | United States | 10.65s | Q | | 2. George Simpson | United States | 10.70s | Q | | 3. Arthur Jonath | Germany | 10.71s | Q | | 4. Carlos Bianchi |  Argentina | 10.73s | | | 5. Bert Pearson | Canada | 10.95s | | | 6. Harold Wright | Canada | 11.1s | |
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With a mild assisting wind and 30°C weather, the Olympic final was
run in ideal conditions, and ended with a controversial result. Ralph
Metcalfe was the hot favourite, having won the NCAA title with an
unratified world record of 10.2 and the US Olympic Trials ahead of
Tolan. Despite the use of the Kirby camera device, which showed both
the order of finish and the “hundredth” times of the athletes, some
bizarre results occurred in the preliminaries. None more so than the
first semi-final which clearly showed Tolan just edging reigning cham-
pion Williams for the last qualifying place, only to have the American
announced as winner of the race ahead of Joubert (the real winner) and
Yoshioka. The Nippon athlete, one of the greatest starters of all-time,
took a metre lead in the first 10m of the final, but was caught by Tolan
at 40m, with the others a metre back.
Metcalfe surged to within 30cm of Tolan at 60m, and caught him at
80m. They ran together to the finish where Metcalfe dipped to reach the
line with Tolan. The rule of the day stated that the winner was the ath-
lete crossing the line first. After two hours it was determined from film
of the race that Tolan was the winner. Under current rules (the athlete
who reaches the line first) Metcalfe would have been the victor.
| World Record | 10.3s | Percy Williams | Toronto (CAN) August 9, 1930 | | Olympic Record | 10.6s | Donald Lippincott | Stockholm (SWE) July 6, 1912 | | 10.6s | Charlie Paddock | Antwerp (BEL) August 16, 1920 | | 10.6s | Harold Abrahams | Paris (FRA) July 6/7 1924 | | 10.6s | Robert McAllister | Amsterdam (NED) July 29/30 1928 | | 10.6s | Percy Williams | Amsterdam (NED) July 30, 1928 | | 10.6s | Wilfred Legg | Amsterdam (NED) July 30, 1928 |
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| Quarter 1 | time | | | 1. Eddie Tolan | United States | 10.53s | Q, Or | | 2. Carlos Bianchi | Argentina | 10.5s | Q | | 3. Percy Williams | Canada | 10.7s | Q | | 4. Chris Berger |  Netherlands | 10.7s | | | 5. Fernando Ortíz |  Mexico | 11.0s | |
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| Quarter 2 | time | | | 1. George Simpson | United States | 10.74s | Q | | 2. Harold Wright | Canada | 10.9s | Q | | 3. Helmut Körnig | Germany | 11.0s | Q | | 4. Andrej Engel |  Czechoslovakia | 11.1s | |
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| Quarter 3 | time | | | 1. Ralph Metcalfe | United States | 10.77s | Q | | 2. Takayoshi Yoshioka | Japan | 10.8s | Q | | 3. Allan Elliot | New Zealand | 10.9s | Q | | 4. Ernie Page |  Great Britain | 10.9s | | | 5. Ernst Geerling | Germany | 11.1s | |
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| Quarter 4 | time | | | 1. Arthur Jonath | Germany | 10.68s | Q | | 2. Danie Joubert | South Africa | 10.6s | Q | | 3. Bert Pearson | Canada | 10.7s | Q | | 4. José de Almeida |  Brazil | 10.8s | | | 5. Izuo Anno | Japan | 10.9s | |
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| Heat 1 | time | | | 1. Eddie Tolan | United States | 10.9s | Q | | 2. José de Almeida | Brazil | 11.0s | Q | | 3. Fernando Ortíz | Mexico | 11.2s | Q | | 4. André Théard |  Haiti | 11.4s | | | 5. António Rodrigues |  Portugal | 11.5s | | | -. Fred Reid | Great Britain | DNF | |
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| Heat 2 | time | | | 1. George Simpson | United States | 10.9s | | | 2. Ernie Page | Great Britain | 11.1s | | | 3. Andrej Engel | Czechoslovakia | 11.2s | | | 4. Bunoo Sutton |  India | 11.4s | | | 5. Liu Changchun |  China | 11.5s | |
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| Heat3 | time | | | 1. Arthur Jonath | Germany | 10.6s | Q, =WR | | 2. Allan Elliot | New Zealand | 10.8s | Q | | 3. Izuo Anno | Japan | 10.9s | Q | | 4. Ronald Vernieux | India | 11.0s | | | 5. Samuel Giacosa | Argentina | 11.1s | |
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| Heat 4 | time | | | 1. Carlos Bianchi | Argentina | 10.8s | Q | | 2. Helmut Körnig | Germany | 11.0s | Q | | 3. Percy Williams | Canada | 11.1s | Q | | 4. Jesús Moraila | Mexico | 11.2s | |
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| Heat 5 | time | | | 1. Ralph Metcalfe | United States | 11.0s | Q | | 2. Bert Pearson | Canada | 11.1s | Q | | 3. Angelos Lambrou |  Greece | 11.3s | Q | | 4. Fernando Ramírez | Mexico | 11.4s | |
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| Heat 6 | time | | | 1. Danie Joubert | South Africa | 11.0s | Q | | 2. Harold Wright | Canada | 11.2s | Q | | 3. Ernst Geerling | Germany | 11.3s | Q | | 4. Ricardo Guimarães | Brazil | 11.4s | |
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| Heat 7 | time | | | 1. Takayoshi Yoshioka | Japan | 10.9s | Q | | 2. Chris Berger | Netherlands | 11.1s | Q | | 3. Berra Héctor | Argentina | 11.2s | Q | | 4. Stanley Fuller | Great Britain | 11.3s | | | 5. Mario Marques | Brazil | 11.5s | |
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