U.S. Olympian Jim Hines, First Sprinter to Run 100m in Under 10 Seconds, Dead at 76

Hines also played in the NFL for the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs following his track and field achievements

Jim Hines, the U.S. Olympian known for being the first man to run the 100m race in 10 seconds has died at the age of 76.

World Athletics — the international governing body for several athletics events like track and field and cross country running — announced Hines's death, saying the athlete died on Saturday. His cause of death was not disclosed.

Hines was born in Dumas, Arkansas in 1946 and raised in Oakland, California. He initially took an interest in basketball, according to the organization, until athletics coach Jim Coleman eyed him out for track and field due to his running ability.

He went on to win state titles in the 100m and 200m races as a senior, per the USA Track & Field (USATF), and had been ranked among the top 20 runners in the world in the 100m race.

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Hines took his running talents to Texas Southern University under the tutelage of track and field coach Stan Wright and 100m Olympic champion Bobby Morrow. He took second place in the 200m race at the U.S. Nationals in 1965 before going on to win the national title the following year.

He set some of the fastest records at the time, clocking in at 9.1 seconds for 100m yards and 10.0 for 100m, per World Athletics. However, it wasn’t until 1968 that he would officially break the world record for running the 100m.

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Hines broke the 10-second barrier for the 100m race, clocking in at 9.9 seconds (which had been electronically recorded at 10.3 seconds) at the 1968 US Championships in Sacramento, earning him a spot on the U.S. Olympics team.

The track and field star would go on to repeat the feat, running the 100m at the Olympics in Mexico City at around an electronically timed 9.95 seconds — earning him a gold medal.

His world record stayed intact until Calvin Smith broke it 15 years later in 1983 by running the 100m in 9.93 seconds, according to World Athletics.

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Hines also won a second gold medal during the 4x100m relay, alongside Charlie Green, Mel Pender and Ronnie Ray Smith — breaking the world record by running the race in 38.24 seconds.

After his several achievements in track and field, he went on to play for the Miami Dolphins in 1969 and Kansas City Chiefs in 1970. He took on a mentorship role, working with inner-city youth in the city of Houston, per the USATF. Hines was eventually inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1979.

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