The men's 100 meters at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea saw world champion Ben Johnson of Canada defeat defending Olympic champion Carl Lewis of the United States in a world record time of 9.79, breaking his own record of 9.83 that he had set at the 1987 World Championships in Rome. Two days later, Johnson was stripped of his gold medal and world record by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after he tested positive for stanozolol. The gold medal was then awarded to the original silver medalist Lewis, who had run 9.92. On 30 September 1989, following Johnson's admission to steroid use between 1981 and 1988, the IAAF rescinded his world record of 9.83 from the 1987 World Championship Final and stripped Johnson of his World Championship gold medal, which was also awarded to Lewis, who initially finished second. This made Lewis the first man to repeat as Olympic champion in the 100 metres (second, if Archie Hahn's 1906 Intercalated Games title is recognized).

Lewis's 9.92 from the Olympic final was also recognized as the official world record, breaking the 9.93 mark that Calvin Smith had set in 1983 and Lewis had since equalled twice. Smith also participated in this race and originally finished fourth, but was elevated to third place and awarded the bronze medal, and Linford Christie of the United Kingdom, who originally won the bronze medal, was elevated to silver. It would take eleven years for an athlete to run a "clean" 9.79 in the 100 meters, which was accomplished by Maurice Greene in Athens, Greece in 1999.

The other participants in this race, in order of finish, were Dennis Mitchell of the United States, who would go on to win the bronze medal in this event in Barcelona; Robson da Silva of Brazil, who won bronze in the 200 meters in Seoul; Johnson's teammate Desai Williams, a bronze medalist in the 4 × 100 meter relay in Los Angeles four years earlier; and Ray Stewart of Jamaica, who won a silver medal in the same relay at the Los Angeles Olympics.

102 competitors from 69 countries competed. Each nation was limited to three athletes under the rules laid down at the 1930 Olympic Congress.

Aftermath Johnson was not the only participant whose success was questioned: Lewis had tested positive at the Olympic Trials for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine. Lewis defended himself, claiming that he had accidentally consumed the banned substances. After the supplements that he had taken were analyzed to prove his claims, the USOC accepted his claim of inadvertent use, since a dietary supplement he ingested was found to contain "Ma huang", the Chinese name for Ephedra (ephedrine is known to help weight loss). Fellow Santa Monica Track Club teammates Joe DeLoach and Floyd Heard were also found to have the same banned stimulants in their systems, and were cleared to compete for the same reason.

The highest level of the stimulants Lewis recorded was 6 ppm, which was regarded as a positive test in 1988 but is now regarded as negative test. The acceptable level has been raised to ten parts per million for ephedrine and twenty-five parts per million for other substances.Wallechinsky and Loucky, The Complete Book of the Olympics (2012 edition), page 61 According to the IOC rules at the time, positive tests with levels lower than 10 ppm were cause of further investigation but not immediate ban. Neal Benowitz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco who is an expert on ephedrine and other stimulants, agreed that "These [levels] are what you'd see from someone taking cold or allergy medicines and are unlikely to have any effect on performance."

Christie was found to have metabolites of pseudoephedrine in his urine after a 200 m heat at the same Olympics, but was later cleared of any wrongdoing. Of the top five competitors in the race, only former world record holder and eventual bronze medalist Smith never failed a drug test during his career. Smith later said: "I should have been the gold medalist."

The CBC radio documentary, Rewind, "Ben Johnson: A Hero Disgraced" broadcast on September 19, 2013, for the 25th anniversary of the race, stated 20 athletes tested positive for drugs but were cleared by the IOC at this 1988 Seoul Olympics. An IOC official stated that endocrine profiles done at those games indicated that 80 percent of the track and field athletes tested showed evidence of long-term steroid use, although not all were banned.

Background This was the twenty-first time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. For the first time, the number of competitors topped 100.

Algeria, Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Hong Kong, the Maldives, Papua New Guinea, San Marino, Togo, Tonga, Vanuatu, South Yemen, and Zimbabwe appeared in the event for the first time. It was also the first appearance of "Chinese Taipei," though the Republic of China had competed before. The United States made its 20th appearance in the event, the most of any country, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format The event retained the same basic four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1968, was used again to ensure that the quarterfinals and subsequent rounds had exactly 8 runners per heat; this time, the system was used in both the preliminaries and quarterfinals.

The first round consisted of 13 heats, each with 7 or 8 athletes. The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next nine fastest runners overall. This made 48 quarterfinalists, who were divided into 6 heats of 8 runners. The top two runners in each quarterfinal advanced, with four "fastest loser" places. The 16 semifinalists competed in two heats of 8, with the top four in each semifinal advancing to the eight-man final.Official Report, vol. 2, pp. 270–71.

Records These were the then-recognized world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1988 Summer Olympics. World record 9.831 Ben Johnson Rome (ITA) August 30, 1987 Olympic record 9.95 Jim Hines Mexico City (MEX) October 14, 1968

1 This time was rescinded by the IAAF Council in September 1989 after Johnson admitted to using steroids between 1981 and 1988. Not including that time, the world record was 9.93.

The following Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Athlete Time OR WRSeptember 24, 1988 9.92 ORWR

Following Johnson's disqualification, Carl Lewis's time of 9.92 was recognized as a new Olympic record, and also became a new world record after Johnson's time was rescinded.

Results Heats Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Robson da Silva 10.37 2 Ezio Madonia 10.40 3 Cheng Hsin-fu 10.48 4 Thierry Lauret 10.56 5 Boevi Lawson 10.59 6 Leung Wing Kwong 10.82 7 Mohamed Fahd Al-Bishi 10.85 8 Jerry Jeremiah 10.96 Wind: +0.6 m/s

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Calvin Smith 10.28 2 Attila Kovács 10.39 3 Mardi Lestari 10.40 4 Andrey Razin 10.58 5 Henri Ndinga 10.74 6 Fabian Muyaba 10.75 7 Moustafa Kamel Salmi 11.08 8 Markus Büchel 11.21 Wind: +0.9 m/s

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Talal Mansour 10.42 2 Juan Núñez 10.47 3 Amadou M'Baye 10.64 4 Fabian Whymns 10.70 5 Neville Hodge 10.73 6 Horace Dove-Edwin 10.89 7 Alexandre Yougbare 10.90 8 Henrico Atkins 11.01 Wind: +0.7 m/s

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Emmanuel Tuffour 10.31 2 Koji Kurihara 10.46 3 Andrew Smith 10.49 4 Zheng Chen 10.51 5 István Tatár 10.52 6 Christian Haas 10.54 7 John Hou 10.96 8 Ehab Fuad Ahmed Nagi 11.53 Wind: +0.8 m/s

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Linford Christie 10.19 2 Max Morinière 10.34 3 Sven Matthes 10.35 4 Li Tao 10.47 5 Samuel Nchinda-Kaya 10.60 6 Lee Shiunn-long 10.69 7 Bill Trott 10.69 8 Frank Maziya 11.52 Wind: +1.1 m/s

Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Chidi Imoh 10.62 2 Charles-Louis Seck 10.64 3 Issa Alassane-Ousséni 10.72 4 John Regis 10.76 5 Mothobi Kharitse 10.97 6 Robert Loua 11.20 7 Samuel Birch 11.68 — Pedro Agostinho Wind: +1.4 m/s

Heat 7 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Ray Stewart 10.22 2 Pierfrancesco Pavoni 10.36 3 Vitaliy Savin 10.52 4 György Fetter 10.54 5 Khaled Ibrahim Jouma 10.80 6 Muhammad Afzal 10.91 7 Claude Roumain 11.22 Wind: +1.8 m/s

Heat 8 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Ben Johnson 10.37 2 Cai Jianming 10.55 3 Sim Deok-Seop 10.56 4 Carlos Moreno 10.70 5 Abdullah Salem Al-Khalidi 10.90 6 Mohamed Shah Jalal 10.94 7 Joseph Ssali 10.95 8 St. Clair Soleyne 11.17 Wind: +2.0 m/s

Heat 9 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Desai Williams 10.24 2 Peter Wekesa 10.50 3 Olapade Adeniken 10.56 4 Eduardo Nava 10.68 5 Jailto Bonfim 10.75 6 Lindel Hodge 10.79 7 Visut Watanasin 10.88 8 Arménio Fernandes 10.92 Wind: +1.0 m/s

Heat 10 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Vladimir Krylov 10.34 2 Arnaldo da Silva 10.44 3 Michele Lazazzera 10.47 4 Kennedy Ondiek 10.51 5 Takahiko Kasahara 10.62 6 Jimmy Flemming 10.70 7 Jihad Salame 11.49 8 Gilbert Bessi 11.55 Wind: +1.4 m/s

Heat 11 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Dennis Mitchell 10.37 2 Isiaq Adeyanju 10.45 3 Ousmane Diarra 10.53 4 Oliver Daniels 10.68 5 Luís Cunha 10.80 6 Evaristo Ortíz 11.01 7 Nguyễn Đình Minh 11.09 8 Secundino Borabota 11.52 Wind: +1.0 m/s

Heat 12 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 John Myles-Mills 10.31 2 Andreas Berger 10.40 3 Barrington Williams 10.51 4 Patrick Stevens 10.51 5 Enrique Talavera 10.61 6 Tomohiro Osawa 10.71 7 Dominique Canti 11.11 8 Ismail Asif Waheed 11.49 Wind: +1.4 m/s

Heat 13 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Carl Lewis 10.14 2 Jean-Charles Trouabal 10.39 3 José Javier Arqués 10.44 4 John Mair 10.44 5 Harouna Pale 10.76 6 Peauope Suli 10.94 7 Maloni Bole 11.19 Wind: +0.9 m/s

Quarterfinals Quarterfinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Linford Christie 10.11 2 Dennis Mitchell 10.13 3 Ben Johnson 10.17 4 John Mair 10.41 5 Charles-Louis Seck 10.42 6 Li Tao 10.53 7 Kennedy Ondiek 10.57 8 Ousmane Diarra 10.61 Wind: +1.2 m/s

Quarterfinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Desai Williams 10.16 2 Arnaldo da Silva 10.25 3 Vladimir Krylov 10.26 4 Attila Kovács 10.27 5 Michele Lazazzera 10.50 6 Thierry Lauret 10.51 7 Zheng Chen 10.72 8 Chidi Imoh 11.44 Wind: +1.7 m/s

Quarterfinal 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Ray Stewart 10.25 2 Juan Núñez 10.33 3 Sven Matthes 10.36 4 Jean-Charles Trouabal 10.41 5 José Javier Arqués 10.43 6 Amadou M'Baye 10.45 7 Barrington Williams 10.55 8 Christian Haas 10.57 Wind: +0.9 m/s

Quarterfinal 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Calvin Smith 10.16 2 Olapade Adeniken 10.30 3 Andreas Berger 10.34 4 Emmanuel Tuffour 10.37 5 Talal Mansour 10.38 6 Patrick Stevens 10.50 7 Cheng Hsin-Fu 10.54 8 György Fetter 10.55 Wind: +0.2 m/s

Quarterfinal 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Carl Lewis 9.99 2 Robson da Silva 10.24 3 Isiaq Adeyanju 10.32 4 Pierfrancesco Pavoni 10.33 5 Vitaliy Savin 10.36 6 Koji Kurihara 10.49 7 István Tatár 10.68 8 Issa Alassane-Ousséni 10.83 Wind: +1.4 m/s

Quarterfinal 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 John Myles-Mills 10.21 2 Mardi Lestari 10.32 3 Max Morinière 10.37 4 Ezio Madonia 10.38 5 Peter Wekesa 10.43 6 Sim Deok-Seop 10.55 7 Andrew Smith 10.63 8 Cai Jianming 10.76 Wind: +0.3 m/s

Semifinals Semifinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Carl Lewis 9.97 2 Calvin Smith 10.15 3 Ray Stewart 10.18 4 Desai Williams 10.24 5 Arnaldo da Silva 10.32 6 Olapade Adeniken 10.33 7 Mardi Lestari 10.39 8 John Myles-Mills 10.43 Wind: +0.6 m/s

Semifinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Ben Johnson 10.03 2 Linford Christie 10.11 3 Dennis Mitchell 10.23 4 Robson da Silva 10.24 5 Attila Kovács 10.31 6 Juan Núñez 10.35 7 Isiaq Adeyanju 10.60 – Vladimir Krylov Wind: -1.2 m/s

Final Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes Carl Lewis 9.92 WR Linford Christie 9.97 NR Calvin Smith 9.99 4 Dennis Mitchell 10.04 5 Robson da Silva 10.11 6 Desai Williams 10.11 7 Ray Stewart 12.26 Ben Johnson 9.79 Wind: +1.1 m/s

See also Women's 100 metres

References

Works cited Official Report