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Noah Lyles wins 100 meters in photo finish for first of possible four gold medals

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Noah Lyles wins 100 meters in photo finish for first of possible four gold medals

PARIS — Bold-talking American sprinting star Noah Lyles arrived at the Paris Olympics announcing his intentions of leaving with four gold medals.

One down, three to go.

The 27-year-old from Virginia won his first Olympic gold medal Sunday by bolting to the 100-meter title in a personal-best 9.79 seconds in front of a deafening, sold-out Stade de France crowd.

A self-described showman who thrives on a large audience, Lyles ran from behind for much of the first 90 meters while chasing down Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson to a photo finish. The sprinters waited nervously at the finish line, watching the scoreboard for results. Lyles froze when it showed he had prevailed by one of the narrowest margins — five-thousandths of a second.

Lyles is the first American to win the Olympic 100 meters since 2004. American Fred Kerley earned bronze in 9.81.

Lyles had earned a world title in the 100 meters only 12 months earlier, when he won three gold medals at those 2023 world championships in Budapest, but he understood that Olympic performances resonate more deeply than any other — just as they have resonated more deeply with him too.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Lyles endured disappointment that led to depression after he entered as a 200-meter favorite only to leave with bronze. He has spent the three years since working his way back to a place of physical and mental readiness to redeem himself, a process that culminated Sunday when he burst out of a door next to the starting line after hearing his introduction, waving his arms to fans.

“I can feel it!” he mouthed to a television camera before the start.

Then, from the seventh lane, he outlasted a past Olympic champion (Italy’s Marcell Jacobs), a former world champion (Kerley of the U.S.) and the owner of the year’s fastest time (Thompson).

Lyles ripped off his bib with his name while celebrating, thrusting it toward the crowd before appearing to wipe away tears.

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 on Aug. 4, 2024.Patrick Smith / Getty Images

Though Lyles claimed the unofficial title of “world’s fastest man” after winning last year’s world championship in the 100 meters, he was not the fastest man in his own first-round qualifying heat Saturday, needing to work to run 10.04 in second, even as other legitimate gold-medal contenders including Thompson, Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala and fellow Americans Kerley and Kenny Bednarek cruised easily through their own heats.

Lyles brushed it off as not being harder than he expected, but calling it a valuable lesson that he was running as the man everyone else wanted to beat.

“I won’t let that happen again,” Lyles said Saturday.

He lived up to his promise. Racing in the lane next to Great Britain’s Louie Hinchcliffe one night later in a semifinal heat, Lyles was far more responsive, crossing the line in 9.83 — just two-hundredths off his personal best — while locked in a stare-down with the only man faster, Jamaican Oblique Seville. By speed and temperament, Lyles appeared focused. But he was not necessarily the man to beat.

Hours before the final began, Thompson produced the fastest semifinal, 9.80, while cruising through the line. By qualifying times, it was the most difficult final to make in the event’s 128-year Olympic history.

By the finish time, it was one of the hardest gold medals to earn, too. It belongs to Lyles.

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