The men’s 100m sprint at Paris 2024 lived up to its billing as the marquee event of the Olympics, featuring one of the closest finals in history.
American sprinter Noah Lyles secured the gold medal with a thrilling photo-finish win, posting a time of 9.784 seconds. The race was virtually a dead heat with Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, with Lyles declared the winner by just 0.005 seconds. Thompson took the silver.
Following the race but before the results were announced, Lyles told Thompson, “Bro, I think you’ve got that one,” according to the Associated Press. “But then my name popped up and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, amazing!'” Lyles added.
“I thought I had (him) cleared,” Thompson said. “But I wasn’t sure. It was so close.”
American Fred Kerley, the silver medalist in the event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, earned the bronze with a time of 9.81 seconds. Akani Simbine of South Africa narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth, just 0.01 seconds behind Kerley.
Italy’s Marcell Jacobs, the defending Olympic gold medalist, finished fifth with a time of 9.85 seconds.
The victory marks Lyles’s second Olympic medal, having won bronze in the 200m at the Tokyo Games. His time of 9.784 seconds is a personal best.
The finish was the closest in the 100m since at least the Moscow 1980 Olympics. In that race, Britain’s Allan Wells narrowly defeated Cuba’s Silvio Leonard, but the electronic timers at that time did not measure to thousandths of a second, making it unclear if this year’s finish was closer.
Lyles spent much of the race trailing Thompson and had to make a significant effort to catch up. After crossing the finish line, he waited around 30 seconds to hear his name announced as the winner. Upon the announcement, he ripped off his name bib and held it up to the crowd in celebration.
This win marks the first time an American has won gold in the event since Justin Gatlin in 2004. Lyles, the reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, will aim to add to his medal tally in the 200m event, which begins in Paris on Monday and is considered his stronger race.
