Noah Lyles of the US won the men’s 100-metre final at the Paris Olympics in a razor-thin photo finish over Jamaican Kishane Thompson, becoming the first American to claim the title in 20 years.
Inside a packed Stade de France on Sunday night, Lyles crossed the finish in a personal best 9.784 seconds to Thompson’s 9.789. Fred Kerley, also of the US and the silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics, finished third in 9.81. Marcell Jacobs, defending champion, finished fifth. It was the first time in history that eight men broke 10 seconds in a wind-legal race.
Long considered one of the marquee events of the entire Olympic Games, the 100-metre final has catapulted winners to instant global fame. From 2008 through 2016, the event was dominated by reigning world record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica, and while no sprinter has run within a tenth of a second of his fastest time of 9.58, Lyles has been positioning himself for years to inherit the position as the face of global sprinting.