A new Olympic star One of the most startling sprint finishes ever seen

Noah Lyles always said he was a star. In fact he told anyone who would listen.

- Barney Ronay

Now they really are going to have to believe him. On a lovely soft powder blue night in Saint Denis, Lyles produced one of the most startling Olympic sprint final finishes ever seen to claim the Paris 2024 men's 100m gold medal.

Lyles, the world champion and US No 1 had already been an extraordinary presence in the build-up to these Games, an athlete acting out his own pre-superstar phase, always on, always capturing the main stage.

By the time he reached the start line here, performing in the moments before the gun a slightly wild pre-race war dance, there was a sense of a man right on the edge.

But of what? Lyles has acted like champion, talked like a champion, not really yet run like champion.

It took more than simply raising his game or seizing the moment. It took an extraordinary act of will mid-race to make this work. With 50 metres run Lyles was in seventh. He was watching the field, the day, his own sense of destiny running away from him. At which point, when he might have begun to tense or slow his forward thrust, Lyle instead produced an astonishing slingshot finish, surging through the field to take the race by five-thousandths of a second in 9.79, the fastest he has ever run this race.