At 30m Noah Lyles was dead last but Team USA's track star rose like a gladiator to win gold in the greatest men's Olympic 100m final ever, writes IAN HERBERT Noah Lyles produced an extraordinary finish to win the men's 100m final Lyles won by five thousandths of a second as he claimed his first Olympic gold By Ian Herbert Published: 22:30, 4 August 2024 | Updated: 22:37, 4 August 2024 e-mail View comments He arrived in this place like a meteor, entering the arena even before his name had been called, jumping up and down the track like a man possessed. The others readied themselves and tried to still their beating hearts. Noah Lyles just twirled his arms around, whipping up the audience.
The problem with an entry like that — an entry transcending anything we had even seen from the master of theatre Usain Bolt — is the potential for hubris. Lyles has been talking himself up for so long that he had built a tower of pressure on himself, stretching up to the blue Paris sky. And for a very long time, by the standards of this race of all races, it seemed to be crashing right down on his head.
After 10 metres of this extraordinary Olympic final, he was last. After 30 metres he was last. And then, when the start which has always been his weakness was in the past, he rose like a gladiator, powering beyond two brilliant, unsuspecting Jamaicans who believed that they could restore the spirit of Bolt, to win the greatest, closest 100 metres men’s final of them all.
For 20 enormous seconds, Lyles didn’t know that fact. He was silenced for once. He just stood on the shoulder of Kishane Thompson, the Jamaican who seemed to have this won, staring at the stadium screen as a seven-way photo finish ensued.
Noah Lyles won gold in the greatest men's Olympic 100m final ever as he responded superbly Lyles won by five thousandths of a second as he managed to claim his first Olympic gold The USA star was full of confidence before the race and he managed to secure glory Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes.
And then it was confirmed. In the stadium where Lyles made his 100m debut two years ago, and won, he won by five-thousandths of a second. Just 0.
12 seconds divided the eight who raced. Michael Johnson had predicted it would be ‘the most open in 15 years’. And some.
It is the 27-year-old’s first Olympic gold. It is the United States’ first Olympic gold over the queen distance since Justin Gatlin’s at Athens in 2004. Don’t be entirely deceived by the Lyles pomp and ceremony.
The ‘big noise’ as one of the magazine covers describes his self-promotion, or the tattoo on his abs stating ‘icon’, which he says reminds him of ‘what I want to be known for when I die.’ Because sport is a brutal leveller. It only sustains winners.
No one cares about your red and black lacquered nails and your rap playlist when you’re not a winner. And everything in athletics is a prelude to this Sunday night, every four years. This race transcends all else.
It’s why the 200m bronze medal Lyles took home from Tokyo was a source of devastation to him. He’d struggled with demons before that summer, weaning himself off anti-depressants in an attempt to get himself in shape. Behind that monumental ego, he knew there were chinks in his armour.
Like Bolt, he has never been an electrifying starter at this distance, for all the work that his coach Lance Brauman has done with him. He trailed in all three races which have delivered this gold. But his belief saw him home.
‘Everybody’s healthy, everybody came prepared for the fight and I want to prove that I’m the man amongst all of them. I’m the wolf among wolves.’ What a contrast this provided to the Britons who had competed in the semi-finals.
After ten metres of this extraordinary Olympic final, he was last but Lyles managed to win Kishane Thompson looked to have won the race but ended up having to settle for silver Team GB's Zharnel Hughes vanished from the picture after finishing sixth in third semi-final Louie Hinchliffe became the first athlete in the Olympic history not to make the final with a sub ten-second speed Buoyed by the experience of pushing Lyles into second place in the first round and performing close to the limit of his best in the semi-final, Sheffield runner Louie Hinchcliffe could not make the greatest race. Hinchliffe became the first athlete in Olympic history not to make the final with a sub ten-second speed, finishing third in a time of 9.97 — two-hundredths of a second off his personal best — but still didn’t make the final.
It was a sign of what a night of speed this was going to be. ‘Maybe I should have been more relaxed,’ Hinchcliffe said. ‘I was a bit tense at the end.
’ It didn’t augur well for Zharnel Hughes, the Briton who won a semi-final in Tokyo and reached the final there. Hughes hadn’t broken ten seconds all season and vanished from the picture after finishing sixth in the third semi-final, finishing in 10.01.
They picked purple for this beautiful, vast Olympic track as a reference to the lavender fields of the south of France and Lyles has the scent of much more than this. His race in Paris. He covets gold at 200m, his bolthole and the ‘wife’ to his ‘mistress’ the 100m, as he likes to call it.
And perhaps the 4x100m and 4x400m — a harvest which would place him among the giants, Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis, crowned four times in 1936 and 1984. His description of the moment he saw he had won this race tells us that he won’t lack in confidence. ‘To see my name pop,’ he said.
‘I was like “Goodness gracious, I’m incredible.”’ Team USA Olympics Usain Bolt Paris Noah Lyles Share or comment on this article: At 30m Noah Lyles was dead last but Team USA's track star rose like a gladiator to win gold in the greatest men's Olympic 100m final ever, writes IAN HERBERT e-mail Add comment.
