Explained: Why Noah Lyles won Paris Olympics 100m gold over Kishane Thompson when they both clocked a 9.79s

Noah Lyles snatched the Paris Olympics 100m gold out of Kishane Thompson's hands, but many were left confused given that both sprinters stopped the clock at 9.79s. However, there were exactly 0:0.005 seconds separating the two, leading to Lyles claiming his maiden Olympic title in a perfect photo finish.

Going into this men's 100m finals, the race was one of the most hotly anticipated track events of the Games. Reigning World Champion Noah Lyles had announced his intentions to walk away with the gold well before the competition, but Jamaica's Thompson looked like a lethal threat to the American's dream after he clocked a 9.77s at the Jamaican Trials.

In Paris, Thompson furthered his status as a favorite to storm to the top spot of the podium, especially after he topped the semifinals charts with a time of 9.80s.

Come the finals, the 23-year-old got off to a phenomenal start, and was within touching distance of the gold when Lyles closed in on him. The two crossed the finish line together, and for a moment it looked like Thompson had claimed gold.

However, when the times went up, it turned out that Lyles and the Jamaican had both clocked a 9.79s, leaving the two sprinters to wait as analysts and technology came together to break the race down to the hundredth of a second. In the end, it was indeed Noah Lyles who was the faster man when it mattered the most, with his time being a 9.79 (.784) while Thompson had stopped the clock at 9.79 (.789).

Paris Olympics 2024: Fred Kerley joins Noah Lyles on the podium

Meanwhile, Team USA had plenty to celebrate even outside of Noah Lyles’ bringing home the 100m gold after two decades. Behind the 27-year-old, his teammate Fred Kerley clocked a season of 9.81s to make it onto the podium for bronze.

Going into the race, Kerley had been left out of the medal conversation, with Lyles, Thompson, and Oblique Seville looking like the ones to watch out for. However, the former World Champion stunned audiences at Stade De France as he sprinted ahead to the finish line, claiming his second consecutive 100m Olympic medal.

Elsewhere, Oblique Seville, one of the fastest men on the field coming into the race, was dealt heartbreak as he finished eighth, clocking a 9.91s. This made him the only sprinter in the final to fail to breach the 9.9 second mark.