On Sunday (4th August) night, the 27-year-old American sprinter Noah Lyles claimed his first Olympic gold medal by winning the thrilling men’s 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympics. His gold medal was the first men’s 100m gold medal for the USA in the Summer Olympics since Beijing 2008.
Paris 2024 Olympics: Men's 100m final - A thrilling finish; Noah Lyles closely beat Kishane Thompson
We experienced one of the thrilling finals in the men’s 100m event. While American Fred Kerley had a great start in the final, Jamaican Kishane Thompson soon became the favourite to win the race. However, in the end, the six-time world champion (including once in men’s 100m) Noah Lyles just managed to beat the Jamaican to snatch the gold medal.
Both Lyles and Thompson clocked 9.79 seconds. However, in detail, Lyles finished the race in 9.784 seconds, and Thompson completed it in 9.789 seconds.
It was the first Olympic gold medal for Lyles. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, he won his first Olympic medal by securing the bronze medal in the men’s 200m event. Meanwhile, Jamaican Thompson claimed his first Olympic medal on Sunday night.
Lyles said, according to Reuters, "It's the one I wanted, it's the hard battle, it's the amazing opponents. Everybody came prepared for the fight and I wanted to prove that I'm the man among all of them, I'm the wolf among wolves."
Before the Paris 2024 Olympics, America won the men’s 100m race at the Summer Olympics in Athens 2004, where Justin Gatlin won the gold medal.
On the other hand, American Fred Kerley claimed the bronze medal (9.81 seconds), which was his second Olympic medal. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, he won the men’s 100m silver medal.
Paris 2024 Olympics: Men's 100m final - other finishers
The defending champion, Italian Marcell Jacobs, finished in fifth place (9.85 seconds). In the meantime, South African Akani Simbine set a new national record by clocking in 9.82 seconds, but the fourth-placed athlete just missed out on the podium finish.
Botswana Letsile Tebogo finished in sixth place with a national record (9.86 seconds), while American Kenny Bednarek (9.88 seconds) and Jamaican Oblique Seville (9.91 seconds) managed the seventh and eighth positions, respectively.
