The athletics world mourns the loss of sprinter Jim Hines: the American, who was the first athlete to officially run the 100 meters in under ten seconds, died last Saturday at the age of 76. This was announced by the world association World Athletics (WA). Hines broke the sound barrier for the first time on June 20, 1968 at the US Trials in Sacramento. Hines thus undercut the hand-timed 10.0 seconds that the German Armin Hary ran in Zurich in 1960. Since the sprinters Ronnie Ray Smith and Charles Greene also managed the feat within a few minutes, the evening in California went down in athletics history as the “Night of Speed”.
Four months later, the then 22-year-old Hines also became Olympic champion in the 100 m in Mexico City – this time in 9.95 seconds, electronically timed. It was a record that would last for 15 years. It wasn’t until 1983 that fellow countryman Calvin Smith was two hundredths of a second faster. Hines also won gold with the US relay team in Mexico. Shortly thereafter, however, the American ended his sprinting career to try his hand at the professional football league NFL. There Hines played for the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs.
