Armin Hary (born 22 March 1937) is a German athlete. In 1960 he became the first non-American since 1928 to win the Olympic 100 metres.

Born in Quierschied, Saarland, after playing football in his youth, Hary switched to sprinting at age 16. Only a few years later, in 1958, he won his first international title when he came first in the 100 m and the 4 x 100 m at the European Championships. He was also one of the first track stars to be affected by the rivalry between Adidas and Puma; each of the two then-fledgling companies wanted the "world's fastest man" to wear its shoes. Rumors of cash payments were floated, but no evidence was ever found to support the claim. Today, money to "support" athletes and Olympic teams are commonplace. This was not the case in Hary's time.

Also in 1958, Hary appeared to have run a new world record with a time of 10.0 seconds, but the track's slope of 11 centimetres (4.33 in) was found to exceed the maximum allowed 10 centimetres (3.94 in). In 1960, another try at the world record seemed to have failed again, after judges believed Hary's start of another 10.0 race had been false—Hary was well known for his fast starts. In a re-run that same evening, Hary finally set the world record, which stood for just 24 days, but this performance stood as a European record for eight years less one day.

Coordinates: 49°47′20″N 3°56′02″E / 49.7889°N 3.9339°E / 49.7889; 3.9339

Hary is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.

Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals including 9 gold, and 10 World Championships medals, of which 8 were gold. His career spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired. Lewis became an actor and has appeared in a number of films.

Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper who topped the world rankings in the 100 m, 200 m and long jump events frequently from 1981 to the early 1990s, was named Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News in 1982, 1983 and 1984, and set world records in the 100 m, 4 x 100 m and 4 x 200 m relays. His world record in the indoor long jump has stood since 1984 and his 65 consecutive victories in the long jump achieved over a span of 10 years is one of the sport’s longest undefeated streaks.

Over the course of his long athletics career, Lewis broke ten seconds for the 100 metres 15 times and twenty seconds for the 200 metres 10 times.

The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, C.D. ( /ˈjuːseɪn/; born 21 August 1986), is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and (along with his teammates) the 4×100 metres relay. He is the reigning Olympic champion in these three events, and is one of only seven athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.

Bolt won a 200 m gold medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships, making him the competition's youngest-ever gold medalist at the time (since surpassed by Jacko Gill). In 2004, at the CARIFTA Games, he became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 m in less than 20 seconds with a time of 19.93 s, breaking the previous world junior record held by Roy Martin by two-tenths of a second. He turned professional in 2004, and although he competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he missed most of the next two seasons due to injuries. In 2007, he broke Don Quarrie's 200 m Jamaican record with a run of 19.75 s.

Valeriy Pylypovych Borzov (Ukrainian: Валерій Пилипович Борзов, Russian: Валерий Филиппович Борзов, Valeriy Filippovich Borzov; born October 20, 1949) is a Ukrainian athlete of Soviet Union, an Olympian, former president of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, and Minister for Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

In 1972 he won both the 100 m and 200 m sprint events for the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games in Munich.

Born in Sambir, Drohobych Oblast, Soviet Union, Borzov started his track and field career in 1968. He became a household name in the Track and Field circles after having won the sprint-double at the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki. He had already won the 100 m championship in 1969, when he equalled Armin Hary's nine year-old European record of 10.0 seconds.

At the 1972 Munich Olympics, two of the American favorites, Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson, missed the 100 m quarterfinals due to a misunderstanding about the starting time of the heats. Their times in the trials were both 9.9 with Eddie Hart just ahead. After Borzov had won the 100 m sprint with relative ease in a time of 10.14 seconds, the Americans promised they would beat Borzov in the 200 m competition.