He arrived at this place like a meteor, entering the arena before his name was announced, jumping up and down on the court like a maniac. The others were getting ready and trying to calm their beating hearts. Noah Lyles was just flailing his arms to get the crowd going.
The problem with such an entry – one that transcends anything we’ve ever seen from the ultimate theatrical maestro Usain Bolt – is the potential for arrogance.
Lyles has been praising himself for so long that he has built a tower of pressure on himself that stretches all the way to the Parisian night sky. And for a long time, by the standards of this race of all races, it looked like it was going to come crashing down on his head.
Ten metres into this extraordinary Olympic final, he was last. Forty metres into it, he was last. And then, with the start that had always been his weakness, he rose like a gladiator, past two brilliant, unsuspecting Jamaicans who believed they could restore Bolt’s spirit, to win the greatest, closest men’s 100m final of them all.
Some thought he had shown a genius by picking up the tape, although he himself did not find it that difficult. “I thought I was leaning too late,” he said. “I don’t practice dipping that much.”
Noah Lyles won gold in the best ever men’s 100m final at the Olympics as he responded fantastically
Lyles won by five thousandths of a second to capture his first Olympic gold medal
The American star was full of confidence before the race and he managed to secure the glory
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For 15 enormous seconds, Lyles didn’t know he had won and in the mist of uncertainty he was silenced for the first time. He simply stood on the shoulder of Kishane Thompson, the Jamaican who had seemingly won this, staring at the stadium screen as a seven-way photo finish ensued. And then it was confirmed.
He had won by five thousandths of a second in a time of 9.784. Only 0.012 of a second separated the eight who raced. Michael Johnson had predicted it would be ‘the most open in 15 years’. And then some.
It is the 27-year-old’s first Olympic gold. It is the United States’ first Olympic gold on the queen’s distance since Justin Gatlin in Athens in 2004.
Don’t be fooled by the pomp and circumstance of “The Big Noise,” as Lyles was recently dubbed on the cover of a magazine, or by the tattoo on his abs that reads “icon,” which he says reminds him of “what I want to be known for when I die.”
Because sports is a brutal equalizer. It only perpetuates winners. No one cares about your red-and-black painted nails and your rap playlist if you’re not a winner. And everything about track and field is a precursor to this Sunday night, every four years. This race transcends everything.
That’s why the bronze medal in the 200 meters that Lyles took home from Tokyo, where he wasn’t even on the U.S. team, was such a disappointment to him.
He has carried that bronze with him everywhere he has raced as a memento of his failure, as he sees it, and he even showed it off at his press conference late last night. He had been battling demons before Tokyo and had come off antidepressants to get in shape.
He knew there were chinks in his own armor. Like Bolt, he’s never been an exciting starter at this distance, despite all the work his coach Lance Brauman has done with him. He’s been behind in his three 100m races here. There were delays on the track as they tried to get the house lights back on after the pre-race light show. A protester was escorted off the track.
After ten meters of this extraordinary Olympic final he was last, but Lyles managed to win
Kishane Thompson looked to have won the race, but ultimately had to settle for silver
Team GB’s Zharnel Hughes disappeared from view after finishing sixth in the third semi-final
Louie Hinchliffe became the first athlete in Olympic history to fail to reach the final with a speed of less than ten seconds
The only clue Lyles gave about how he found grace under pressure as the race seemed to accelerate away from him came from advice his therapist had given him. “You have to relax. Let go. Be yourself.”
In reality, Outrageous Belief brought him home. This is a man who holds to a mindset that only the best athletes have, where losing doesn’t seem like the remotest possibility. It also helped that he was in lane 7, away from the center. “I couldn’t really see what was going on out there.”
What a contrast to the fate of the Britons, mere mortals, who had competed in the semi-finals. Sheffield runner Louie Hincliffe, who had pushed Lyles into second place in the first round of the 100m, became the first athlete in Olympic history to fail to reach the final with a speed of less than ten seconds. Zharnel Hughes was eliminated after finishing sixth in the third semi-final, with a time of 10.01.
The final produced the best possible outcome for track and field. Lyles and his outsized ego can draw attention and money to a sport that needs them both, as Bolt and Johnson once did. The sport needs its egos.
Lyles declared last night, without any irony, that he now wants his own shoe. ‘Even Michael Johnson didn’t have his own sneaker.’
He’s not done yet. He wants gold in the 200m, the 4x100m and the 4x400m and the description of the moment he saw he had won the race tells us he won’t be lacking in confidence. ‘When I saw my name pop up,’ he said. ‘I thought, “Oh my God, I’m unbelievable.”’