Noah Lyles formally grew to become the “world’s quickest man” Sunday by winning the 100m final on the 2024 Paris Olympics. As the primary American to triumph on the track-and-field meet since Justin Gatlin on the 2004 Athens Video games, Lyles had each motive to really feel braggadocios — particularly a 12 months after his triumphs within the 100m, 200m and 4×100 relay occasions on the World Athletics Championship in Budapest.
As a substitute, he despatched out a motivational message to scores of athletes by highlighting the various challenges he needed to overcome to realize Olympic glory. The 27-year-old urged his friends to not let illnesses or vulnerabilities cease them from pursuing their goals.
The viral submit was extensively praised by athletes, celebrities and followers, who labeled Lyles an “American hero” and a “supply of motivation” for his outlook towards life and sports activities.
Lyles’ win was not assured by any means. Just some months in the past, he misplaced to Jamaican rival Indirect Seville on the Racers Grand Prix, three years after he failed to qualify for the 100m on the Tokyo Video games. Many felt Seville and Kishane Thompson had been superior 100m sprinters going into Sunday’s meet, and people analysts had been confirmed proper halfway by way of the race when Lyles trailed at seventh place.
Nevertheless, Lyles made a late sprint to edge previous Thompson by five-thousandths of a second in a dramatic photograph end at Stade de France. The race was so neck-and-neck that each one eight finalists completed inside 0.12 seconds of Lyles, making it the closest 100m meet on the Olympics since 1980. It was additionally simply the second time previously 60 years that the highest two sprinters ran the identical time measuring into the hundredths, per ESPN Stats & Information.
Lyles will look so as to add to his Olympic medal tally on the 200m and 4x100m relay on Monday. A reigning three-time 200m world champion, Lyles has spoken about wanting to interrupt Usain Bolt’s world record of 19.19 seconds within the 200m. A 12 months in the past, he already grew to become the primary sprinter since Bolt to finish the treble of 100m, 200m and 4x100m at a world meet. If he can break Bolt’s document, he’d solidify himself as essentially the most adorned sprinter for the reason that Jamaican legend.
