Olympics 2024: Noah Lyles wins the greatest men's 100m dash in history

The reigning world champion Noah Lyles won the gold medal in the men's 100m dash at the Paris Olympics 2024 by the barest of margins to be crowned the fastest man on the planet.

Lyles clocked 9.79 seconds to win the yellow metal. The American sprinter won the closest 100m final in modern Olympic Games as just five-thousandths of a second separated him from Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson.

Both sprinters clocked 9.79s but Lyles edged past his Jamaican rival carrying the all-important (.784) lead to Thompson’s (.789.)

The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist USA's Fred Kerley clinched the bronze medal by clocking 9.81s.

The Race

It was a star-studded line-up in the final of the 100m dash at the Paris Olympics. The field featured Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Marcell Jacobs, silver medalist Kerley, the fastest man on the season Thompson, and the reigning world champion Lyles and silver medallist Tebogo.

At the start of the race, Italy's Jacob and America's Kerley had the best reaction times.

After 20 meters down the race Thompson picked up his pace and claimed the lead.

Lyles had the slowest reaction time at the start, struggling at the 50-metre mark. But then he blasted off in the final fifty metres to clinch his maiden Olympic gold. In the process, he also achieved a new personal best of 9.79s.

The 30-second Wait

At the end of 100 metres, seven athletes were handed a photo finish and the world stood still for almost thirty seconds before the final results came down.

The race was so close that none of the athletes or spectators around the globe knew who had won the race after the finish.

It took almost half a minute for the official winner of the race to be announced. Lyles and Thompson stood near each other while looking at the video board, awaiting the result.

Once it was confirmed Lyles won the gold, he lifted his bib to the sky, screamed, "America. I told you, I got this", and ran off to celebrate with his mother sitting in the stands of the State de France.

During the post-race press conference, Lyles said, "We were waiting for the names to pop up, and I'm going to be honest, I came over [to Thompson] and I was like, 'I think you got that one, big dawg!'"

"Something said I need to lean, and I was like, 'I'm going to lean,' because it's that type of race," Lyles added.

Olympic debutant Thompson said, "Honestly it's not just that I didn't win the gold, it's that I didn't better myself in that sense,"

"Today I really gained a lot of experience running with all these great competitors. Big up to all of them. But I really beat myself today in that I didn't trust myself and my speed to bring myself to the line in first place," he added.