The event was won in a photo finish by Armin Hary of the United Team of Germany, earning the first Olympic title by a German runner in the event (Fritz Hofmann was second in 1896) and breaking the United States' streak of five straight wins.

American Dave Sime was the silver medalist, posting the same Olympic record time (10.2 seconds) as Hary (they were separated by a photo-finish).

His incredible reaction time supposedly had been clocked using high speed cameras at .03 of a second,[2] while normal humans react from .15 upward.

With the fastest closing speed over the last 20 metres, Radford made up a big gap, to take the slight edge over Figueola and Frank Budd all finishing together.

Manfred Germar, 5th place in 1956, was the only finalist from the Melbourne Games to return in 1960. Notable entrants, along with Hary and Germar, were Americans Ray Norton (U.S. Olympic trial champion), Dave Sime, and Frank Budd, and Canada's Harry Jerome (who shared the world record with Hary at 10 seconds flat).

[6] The British West Indies, Fiji, Kenya, Morocco, South Korea, and Sudan were represented in the event for the first time.

The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first fourteen Olympic men's 100 metres events.