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Noah Lyles Secures His First Gold Medal With 100m Win in Photo Finish

The gap between Lyles and Jamaica's Kishane Thompson was five thousandths of a second.

Josh Wilson

Noah Lyles won the 100m at the Paris Games by .005 of a second.
Noah Lyles won the 100m at the Paris Games by .005 of a second. / Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Noah Lyles adds to his mantle. The U.S. track & field athlete, who secured a bronze last Olympics in the 200m, won gold in the 100m on Sunday in Paris. He set a personal best of 9.79, beating the silver medalist Kishane Thompson by just five thousandths of a second. His teammate, Fred Kerley, secured bronze with a 9.81.

Lyles overcame a subpar reaction time, the worst of the field (0.178). There was an extended pre-race portion as it is one of the most anticipated events of the Games. Lyles appeared to be motioning for the theatrics to speed up before the athletes took their marks.

Here is the race:

His personal best in the event before the final was a 9.81, which he posted at the London Athletics Meet in July. At team trials, he posted a 9.83 before the Olympics in late June.

Lyles ran a 10.04 in his quarterfinal heat, sandwiched between Louie Hinchliffe (Great Britain) who put up a 9.98 and Shaun Maswanganyi (South Africa) who put up a 10.06. He admitted after that heat that he was a little stunned by how much his fellow competitors brought their A-game.

“That’s my first lesson in underestimating the power of the Olympics. When somebody’s on the line, they’re going to give it their all or nothing. But now I don’t have to hold back. I’m ready to go.”

In his semifinal heat, Lyles secured one of the two automatic-in slots in his heat with a 9.83, second in his heat to Oblique Seville (Jamaica), who put up a 9.81. Of the eight runners that qualified, two (Seville and Kishane Thompson, also of Jamaica) put up better quarterfinal times than him.

Lyles is not done at the Paris games. He is also competing in the 200m, as well as the 4x100m relay, here's when and where to watch those.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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