The United States won the Olympic 100-meter championship for the first time in 20 years on Sunday when Noah Lyles won the race by the narrowest margin ever, by five thousandths of a second, despite all the preamble and fanfare.
Lyles thought he had lost the race against the strong Kishane Thompson in a wipeout finish, but the enormous screen showed that he had won with a time that was equal to the Jamaican’s personal best—9.79 seconds—but with a mere vest’s gap between them.
Thompson would have been celebrating his fourth gold medal in the men’s 100-meter sprint at the Olympics if the event had been 99 meters, but Lyles finished quickly, maintaining perfect form and timing his drop to add Olympic gold to his world crown.
He declared himself the fastest man in the world, as he had always promised, as he tore his name bib from his shirt and raised it high with his red, white, and blue fingernails painted.
Lyles, the first American male Olympic 100-meter winner since Justin Gatlin in 2004, stated, “It’s the one I wanted, it’s the hard battle, it’s the amazing opponents.”
“I performed this under extreme pressure, on the biggest stage, against the best of the best; I didn’t do this against a slow field.”
It was the first time eight men had broken 10 seconds in a wind-legal 100-meter race, therefore he was correct in that assessment.
With a national record time of 9.83, South Africa’s Akani Simbini finished fourth and American Fred Kerley earned bronze in 9.81, for an incredible six fourth- or fifth-place finish in global championships.
