for five thousandths, Lyles playing the first act in gold more than 100 m

As an exhibitionist who wanted to give a boost to athletics, the American sprinter Noah Lyles stepped into the limelight on the most prestigious levels of sport, crowned Olympic champion in the 100m by five thousandths at the Games Paris on Sunday evening.

Jumping while entering the purple field of the Stade de France, under the eyes of the American rapper Snoop Dogg, who was an enthusiastic observer of the Olympics from one end of the French capital on the other end, Lyles came from a controversial and tight final: on the finish line, the eight sprinters are only separated by twelve hundredths, and he owes the Olympic gold only to a small lead over on the Jamaican Kishane Thompson, the sprinting publication of the world.

Both are credited with the same time: 9 sec 79 – a personal best for Lyles.

“It was a crazy time. I really thought Kishane had won the cream of the crop, in the biggest competition, with the most pressure.”

The new Olympic champion is joined on the podium by another American, Fred Kerley, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Games three years ago and has since been world champion in the 100m in 2022. third place in 9 seconds 81.

“This is one of the best races I’ve been to in a long time,” Kerley praises.

– Twenty years waiting –

Lyles allows the United States to regain Olympic gold in the main race that had been lost for twenty years, the day after the disappointment experienced by Sha’Carri Richardson in Women’s 100m, beaten by Saint Lucia sprinter Julien Alfred.

With Jamaican legend Usain Bolt between 2008 and 2016 and Italian wonder Marcell Jacobs in 2021 – 5th in Sunday night’s final in 9 sec 85 – Justin Gatlin was the last American Olympic champion in 2004.

Nails painted and with stars similar to the US flag, hair brushed and decorated with white pearls, the Floridian sprinter sees much more in Paris. Author of a great hat-trick at the World Championships in Budapest last summer, 100 m, 200 m and 4×100 m, he even aims for a quadruple at the Stade de France: 100 m, 200 m – his favorite race -, 4×100 m and 4×400 m – even if he is not an expert. A challenge that even Bolt has never met.

At 27, Lyles had established himself as one of the faces of world athletics, with his Hungarian hat-trick, his collection of six world titles since 2019, and his leading role in the Netflix series “Sprint”, which follows the fastest athletes. in the world.

But he did not have Olympic recognition, because the 2021 Olympics did not smile at him. In the Covid bubble and an empty empty stadium, a thousand miles from his show, taken over by a depression program as he has been controlled since childhood, he was only able to get the bronze medal in the 200m, and it was still popular.

– Thompson as heir to Bolt –

“I don’t like this coin.

“He is an actor, he likes the light, the attention, the show.

Three years later, Lyles enjoyed his first gold act in Paris, won with Olympic enthusiasm on both sides. The show begins Monday night in the half-lap series.

How does he look at the 200m? “I’m going to win.

“Sports need that my lad, we need personality,” Bolt said last year after a race in Jamaica.

A sprinting revelation at the age of 23, Thompson came very close to winning the top prize in his first international competition.

But the athlete with the mirror figure, who remains the fastest man of the season with his 9 sec 77 race in the Jamaican selections, has everything to carry the torch that Bolt has laid down. construction