Stunning Multi-Frame Overlay Captures Epic 100m Final

This photo tells thousands upon thousands of words.
Noah Lyles (USA, center) wins the 100m race at Paris 2024
Noah Lyles (USA, center) wins the 100m race at Paris 2024 / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Noah Lyles has arrived. He came out with all the confidence and swagger of a gold medalist, and after a somewhat shaky set of qualification races, got himself to the final. Once there, he knew he could take home a gold, the first in his Olympic career.

It wouldn't be easy, though, it took a personal record for Lyles. The field was stacked with speedy competitors. The race lived up to the hype and the lengthy pre-race theatrics that appeared to bother some of the athletes. In the end, we got a photo finish.

Another photo came out after the race, shared by the World Athletics social media, that tells an awesome story.

Just look how awesome this eight-frame edit is:

It's eight frames of the race, from the start to the finish, and it shows just how close the race was. Every glance down the various lanes tells a different story. Each horizontal look at the eight race stages it captures tells another. The most obvious story, of course, is Lyles, who came from behind after the worst reaction-time start in the race.

The best and worst were separated by 0.12 seconds, and Lyles and the silver medalist, Kishane Thompson, were separated by .005 seconds.

Lyles was in last place at the 40 meter mark, and just seventh by the time the race got to the halfway point. He jumped up to third by the 60-meter mark and second at the 90-meter mark. He did not lead until the 100th meter, the end of the race. Lyles is in lane seven in the image, and you can see him fighting back to ultimately secure the gold.

Just an epic piece of art.


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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.