Noah Lyles of Team United States celebrates winning the gold medal after competing the Men's 100m Final on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on August 04, 2024 in Paris, France.Christian Petersen/Getty Images
The blue-ribbon event of the Paris Olympic track and field meet came down to a photo finish, with Noah Lyles earning the title of world’s fastest man by 0.005 seconds.
By the finest of margins at Stade de France on Sunday night, the 27-year-old American sprinted to Olympic gold in the men’s 100 metres, recording a personal best 9.784 seconds.
Lyles’s dip at the finish line inched just a hair in front of Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, who clocked a 9.789 and took silver. Fellow American Fred Kerley earned bronze in 9.81.
It was the first time an American has won the Olympic gold in this event since Justin Gatlin at the 2004 Athens Games.
The Olympic medal adds to Lyles’s massive profile. Since he won the world 200-metre title in 2022 and three gold medals at the 2023 world championships, he’s become a global superstar. He’s one of the feature characters in the Netflix docuseries Sprint.
Sunday’s stands were packed, the music and the fans amped loud inside Stade de France for what is always a premier night at the Summer Olympics, full of showmen oozing with confidence.
The stadium drew dark, and a light show highlighted the purple track to set the stage. The press areas were heaving with reporters. The eight sprinters entered one by one, skipping, chest-pumping, hollering, lapping up adorations from the crowd.
As they took off, Lyles was trailing behind the pack for the first 30 metres, moved into third by 60, then thrust his way to the front of the group to win.
Lyles draped himself in the star-spangled flag. This gold in Paris atones for his disappointing Tokyo Games, where he left with a bronze in the 200 metres.
“I think back to Tokyo when I messed up handling the rounds,” Lyles said. “From then on, I was like, ‘I’m never going to do that again. I’m going to handle this correctly and practise over the years’.”
Thompson, the silver medallists, was asked if the gold medal should be shared.
“It’s too competitive for us to share a gold medal,” Thompson said. “I’m feeling very good, honestly. My body language will not show it because I am not an expressive guy, but I am glad.
“I know that Jamaica would have wanted me to get the gold, everybody love winners. I would have loved to win today, but big up to the whole field.”
South African Akani Simbine finished fourth, while defending Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Marcell Lamont Jacobs of Italy was fifth. Letsile Tebogo of Botswana finished sixth, American Kenneth Bednarek seventh and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville eighth.
This was the closest 1-2 finish in the 100 since at least Moscow in 1980 – or maybe even ever. Back then, Britain’s Allan Wells narrowly beat Silvio Leonard in an era when the electronic timers didn’t go down into the thousandths of a second.
Canada’s Andre De Grasse was the lone Tokyo 100-metre medalist missing from Sunday’s 100-metre final in Paris. He failed to qualify for the race, when he finished fifth in his semi-final heat earlier Sunday, despite clocking a season-best 9.98 seconds.
Andre De Grasse, of Canada, looks up at the clock after competing in the men's 100-metre semi-finals at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The 29-year-old’s pursuit of a seventh career Olympic medal will have to wait. Until Sunday, Canada’s most decorated male Summer Olympian had won a medal in every event he has raced at the Games.
De Grasse will still compete in the men’s 200 metres and the 4x100-metre relay later this week. He is the reigning Olympic champ in the 200. Lyles will also be favoured in that race.
“I can’t dwell on it too much,” De Grasse said of his 100. “I have the 200-metre [Monday], so I have to just get ready for that. I can probably dissect the 100 metres maybe after the Games.”
De Grasse had earned a bronze medal in the 100-metre event at Rio in 2016 and at Tokyo in 2021.
“I can’t let this confidence affect me, just because I didn’t make the 100 metres,” De Grasse said. “I’ve got to clear my mind, reset, and just go from there.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that American Fred Kerley finished seventh in the men’s 100 metres. Fellow American Kenneth Bednarek finished seventh. This version has been updated.