Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 110 metres hurdles

This was the tenth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Two finalists from 1932 returned: bronze medalist Don Finlay of Great Britain and Willi Welscher of Germany, who had been disqualified in the final in Los Angeles. Forrest Towns and Fritz Pollard, Jr. of the United States were the favorites; Towns had set the world record at 14.1 seconds.[1]

The Republic of China, the Philippines, and Yugoslavia each made their first appearance in the event. The United States made its tenth appearance, the only nation to have competed in the 110 metres hurdles in each Games to that point.

The competition used the three-round basic format introduced in 1908. The first round consisted of six heats, with 5 or 6 hurdlers each. The top two hurdlers in each heat advanced to the semifinals. The 12 semifinalists were divided into two semifinals of 6 hurdlers each; the top three hurdlers in each advanced to the 6-man final.[1][3]

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1936 Summer Olympics.

World record	Forrest Towns (USA)	14.1	Chicago, United States	19 June 1936
Olympic record	George Saling (USA)	14.4	Los Angeles, United States	2 August 1932

Forrest Towns matched his own world record in the first semifinal, lowering the Olympic record by 0.3 seconds in doing so.

The semifinals were held on the day of the final instead of the day of the first round.