(Black PR Wire) SAINT-DENIS, France – Noah Lyles is the fastest man in the world.

One step changes history – a step on the moon, a step on a continent, or a step across a finish line in first place for the first time in 20 years. One step is all the time that Lyles led the men’s 100-meter Olympic final on Sunday night, but one step was all he needed.

His gold-medal finish is the first by an American in the 100m dash since the Olympic Games Athens 2004, when Justin Gatlin won it in 9.85 seconds. Gatlin’s time would have tied for fifth in this year’s race. It’s the first time in history that seven men crossed the line in under 9.90 seconds in a wind legal race, shattering the famed 10-second barrier. Lyles ran it in 9.784 seconds, beating Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five-thousandths of a second.

Lyles exploded into a packed scene in Paris’ Stade de France. He met a raucous crowd charged with an in-arena light show, and with his own reserve of spring-loaded energy combusting, beckoned them to feed the atmosphere with more. Then he ran a race whose excitement paralleled the crescendo of the crowd.

He had the slowest reaction to the gun and occupied last place, eighth, through the first 40 meters. He moved into seventh at 50 meters, passing U.S. teammate Kenneth Bednarek, and jumped to third by 60m, hunting down Thompson, who was the world’s fastest man entering the race and would remain so for just 30 more meters.

By the last 10m, Lyles and Thompson were dipping – leaning into the finish alongside five other sprinters. A seven-way photo finish was the result. The athletes would have to wait for the official results.

Lyles walked over to Thompson to congratulate him.

“After the race I came up, we were waiting for the names to pop up,” Lyles said. “And I'll be honest, I came over, I was like, ‘I think you got that one big dog.’”

But then the results appeared, one-by-one they were displayed on the screen with Lyles earning gold, Thompson silver, and Team USA's Fred Kerley bronze. Lyles’ top finish in the 100-meter dash is the 27-year-old’s first Olympic medal in the event.

“My name popped up and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m amazing,’” Lyles said. “I'm going to be honest, I wasn't ready to see it.”

Lyles, winner of the 100- and 200-meter race in the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, is reinventing himself as a sprinter. After proving his dominance in the 200m, Lyles seeks to master the 100m.

His conquest of the 100m on Sunday keeps Lyles’ goal of winning three Olympic golds alive. He’s slated to compete in the 200m, a race he’s not lost in two full seasons (since the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020), on Monday. After that he’ll contribute to the USA’s 4x100 meter relay, and – if he could put himself in the event – the 4x400 meter relay.  

“I didn’t feel a lot of joy last time I was at the Olympics,” Lyles said. “This time, I have a lot of joy, a lot of excitement. It’s a wonderful crowd, and I am ready to perform for them.”

Lyles’ mojo is drawn from crowds that anticipate greatness, making his debut Olympic experience in the Tokyo 2020 games an underwhelming one.

“I just remember being so, ‘This is not it,’” Lyles said of his thoughts as he stood behind his blocks in an empty stadium. “‘This is not fun. This is not cool. This is not what I wanted. This is not what I thought it was going to be like.’ And that’s literally the last few thoughts I had going into my mind before getting into the blocks.”

Lyles took bronze in Tokyo 2020 200m race, and the loss fueled him. Sunday’s 100m was just the opening act to Lyles’ Olympic Games. He had “ICON” painted in blue polish on his fingernails during 100m prelims, is a fan of flashy fashion, and lets his major personality saturate every room.

“The line between confidence and cockiness is so blurred,” Lyles said. “It’s all an opinion.”

“I want my own shoe,” Lyles said after his race. “I want my own trainer. Dead serious … Even Michael Johnson didn’t have his own sneaker.”

Lyles, an advocate for the publicity of track and field, seeks more for the sport and his fellow athletes.

“I want to see a continuation of the ability to take advantage of moments for our sport,” he said. “... This needs to be accessible because this is a world sport.”

The world watched Lyles become its uncontested fastest man alive in a buzzing Stade de France that would soon stand empty, clinking and humming as it awaits his return in the morning to fill it once again.

Lyles will begin the gauntlet of 200m races where he’ll seek his second Olympic gold of this Games on his quest to achieve the Olympic sprint treble – a feat last accomplished by the great Usain Bolt at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, and last by an American at the Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984 when Carl Lewis did the near-impossible.

For today, the world champion and newly crowned Olympic champion rests as the fastest man alive.

Source: Team USA