Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States wins the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States wins the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States wins the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States wins the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States wins the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
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Noah Lyles of the United States celebrates after winning the men’s 100m dash and the gold medal during track and field at Stade de France during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
SAINT-DENIS, France – Noah Lyles rocked back and forth impatiently in front of his starting blocks before the Olympic Games 100 meter final Sunday night and then took a step and then another in front of the starting line, as if he had waited long enough.
He outstretched both his hands mid-chest level, both palms up and curling his fingers back and forth in a beckoning movement seeming to say bring it on, bring it on.
Bring on all the doubts, the conventional wisdom that he didn’t have the start to claim sprinting’s greatest prize.
Bring on the ghosts of Tokyo.
Bring on the fastest men on the planet.
Lyles was ready.
Lyles, fulfilling the promise the sport first recognized more than a decade ago, taking it all on, the doubts and the demons, won the closest Olympic 100 final in history by a mere by five-thousandths of a second.
Lyles, last out of the starting blocks, wearing custom-made gold adidas shoes, didn’t claim the first Olympic 100 gold medal won by an American man since 2004 until the last step of the race, out-leaning Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson at the line.
Both men were clocked officially at 9.79 seconds and it would be several moments before a review of the photo finish gave Lyles the edge 9.784 to 9.789.
With the victory Lyles, 27, kept alive his hopes of becoming the first man not named Usain Bolt to sweep the Olympic 100 and 200 titles since Carl Lewis did it in Los Angeles 40 years ago.
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