SAINT-DENIS, France — Noah Lyles won the Olympic 100 meters by .005 seconds Sunday, waiting some 30 seconds after the finish of one of the closest sprints in history to find out he’d beaten Kishane Thompson of Jamaica. The word “Photo” popped up on the scoreboard next to the names of Lyles, Thompson and five others after they crossed the line.
Lyles paced the track with his hands draped over his head. Finally, the numbers came up. Lyles won in 9.
784 seconds to edge out the Jamaican by five-thousandths of a tick of the clock. Lyles said he thought he had given the win away by dipping at the line too soon, so he went up to Thompson and told him, “Bro, I think you got that one.” “But then my name popped up and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, amazing!’” America’s Fred Kerley came in third at 9.
81. “That’s probably one of the most beautiful races I’ve been in,” he said. The top seven all finished within .
09 of each other. This was the closest 1-2 finish in the 100 since at least Moscow in 1980 — or maybe even ever. Back then, Britain’s Allan Wells narrowly beat Silvio Leonard in an era when the electronic timers didn’t go down into the thousandths of a second.
The same was true in 1932, when Eddie Tolan won the Olympics’ first ever photo finish. Thank goodness they do now. “I thought I had (him) cleared,” Thompson said.
“But I wasn’t sure. It was so close.” Lyles became the first American to win the marquee event in Olympic track since Justi.