USA sprinter Noah Lyles wins first Olympic gold in epic men’s 100M final

August 4, 2024

Noah Lyles finally won an Olympic gold medal.

The Gainesville, Florida native has long been a man of his word, winning last year’s world championships, and now he’s put it into practice, winning the men’s 100-meter final on Sunday in Paris.

Lyles crossed the line in 9.79784 seconds, winning by five-thousandths of a second, a personal best (the official time was 9.80 seconds).

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Team USA’s Noah Lyles celebrates winning the gold medal after competing in the men’s 100 meters final during the ninth day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Stade de France on August 4, 2024 in Paris, France. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

It took a lengthy photo-finish review to officially declare Lyles the champion, with Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson watching intently alongside him, but broadcasters thought to the naked eye that Thompson had won.

When the results were officially announced, he had seven words to say:

“America, I told you, I’m next!”

Lyles then took a long, well-deserved victory lap with the American flag draped over his shoulders. Fred Curley of the United States won the bronze medal with 9.81 points.

Lyles is the first American to win the event at an Olympic Games since Justin Gatlin in 2004. It was the fifth gold medal won by an American on Sunday (joining golfer Scottie Scheffler, cyclist Kristen Faulkner, swimmer Bobby Finke and the women’s 4×100-meter medley relay team).

The 27-year-old clocked 9.83 seconds in the semifinals, earning automatic qualifiers after placing second in that race. On Saturday, he drew criticism for qualifying second and saying that “the plan” was to finish first from there. That didn’t happen, but all that will be forgotten now, as he took first place when it mattered most.

Of course, some will argue that he brought the hate upon himself by joking that an NBA champion doesn’t deserve to be called a world champion — a comment that alone earned him as much hate as he does love from American sports fans, if not more — but this win could turn the tide.

U.S. women’s 4x100m medley relay team wins gold medal, sets world record in final Olympic swimming event in Paris

Lyles will now shift his focus to the 200m (he said beating Usain Bolt’s world record of 19.19 seconds is his “dream goal”) and the 4x100m relay. He has not yet decided whether he will take part in the 4x400m relay, but was part of the team that won silver at this year’s World Indoor Championships.

In an interview with Fox News Digital in March, Lyles said a friend told him, “Forget three, go for four. Do something that’s never been done before.”

“If you want to talk about being the best, you have to achieve it, so I announced that’s my goal, why not achieve it on the biggest stage, the Olympics,” Lyles said of a possible fourth Olympic Games.

Track and field legend Carl Lewis recently told Fox News Digital that the sport “needs” Lyles to dominate these meets.

“I think the sport needs a champion like him. He’s the defending champion, he’s the fastest man in the world right now and we need someone to grab him. I think he’s the perfect person to do that and I’m very excited,” Lewis said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.

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“I think track and field is more exciting when you have a superstar. So if Noah wins, I think the sport will be more exciting. Instead of saying, ‘I wonder who will win,’ people want to say, ‘I hope he wins,’ or ‘I hope he doesn’t win.’ You want to root for someone, you don’t want to root for someone. I think it creates more tension when you have someone who is just so dominant. It’s always been that way throughout history. When people are just so dominant, people are really drawn to the sport.”

One done, at least two more to go.

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