List of men's Olympic and World Championship athletics sprint champions

This is a list of the men's athletics champions at the Olympics and World Championships in the sprint events since the introduction of the World Championships in 1983. Combining the lists of global champions into a single timeline allows patterns of success and dominance to be demonstrated, as well as highlighting the occasional shock results.

List of champions
Each entry has an asterisk (*) linking to the championship of that year. Yellow background is for Olympic races.

Gold medal leaders
The top gold medallists since 1983 in these events are:

*** including four gold medals in the relay events in which he participated in the heats only.