Who won the men's 100 metres at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo?

Bob Hayes won the men’s 100 metres at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

The American sprinter ran 10.06 seconds in the final, a performance listed as a world record at the time when adjusted for the strong tailwind. Hayes was nicknamed “Bullet Bob” and became the first athlete to win Olympic 100-metre gold for the United States since Jesse Owens in 1936.

His Tokyo achievement was followed by another gold in the 4×100-metre relay. In that relay, the United States team set a world record of 39.06 seconds. Hayes’s 100-metre final was run on a cinder track, unlike the synthetic surfaces used at later Olympics.

He later changed sports and became a professional American football player. Hayes played for the Dallas Cowboys and helped them win Super Bowl VI, making him one of the few athletes to win both Olympic gold and a Super Bowl.