Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres the bronze. For Fredericks and Boldon, this was the second event where they both medaled behind a world record setting run; Fredericks took silver and Boldon bronze in the 200 metre event where Michael Johnson ran 19.32 to complete his Olympic goal of winning gold in the 200m and 400m events. This marked the first time since 1976 that no American runner medaled in the 100 metres, with 1992 bronze medalist Dennis Mitchell placing fourth behind Boldon. Defending gold medalist Linford Christie of Great Britain advanced to the final but was disqualified after false starting twice. This was his last
100 metres at the Olympics to compete in other events held later at the games – many 100 m athletes also compete in the 200 metres and the 4×100 metres relay events. Traditionally there are four rounds of competition: heats, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals. Prior to 1964, finals featured six athletes. For all Olympic competitions from 1964 onwards—allowing for a sufficient number of athletes being present—each race features eight runners. Athletes are seeded by past performance to ensure an even balance of quality across the heats and allow the best runners to progress to the later stages. Usually in the first two rounds the top