Nothing came easy for Noah Lyles in the men's 100-meter , despite his blazing speed.
Lyles underwhelmed in the first round, vowing never to underestimate his competitors again, and he followed it up by narrowly finishing behind Oblique Seville in his semifinal heat. When it came time to prove he was the fastest man in the world, it took considerably longer than his time of 9.78 seconds for Lyles to find out if he completed his mission.
Lyles and Jamaica's Kishane Thompson had to wait out the results of a photo finish that would determine two different legacies. The finish was so close, in fact, that the NBC broadcast initially labeled Thompson the winner. It was Lyles who ultimately got to celebrate a gold medal, allowing him to share an emotional moment with his mother .
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While the wait was only a few additional seconds, there's no doubt it felt arduously long for both sprinters.
Here's a look at the Olympic men's 100-meter photo finish and the tiebreaker rule that gave Lyles the edge.
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Noah Lyles photo finish, explained
Lyles won the 100-meter final by .005 seconds. That's five-thousandths of a second, as both he and Thompson posted a time of 9.79 when rounded off.
Thompson's foot definitively crossed the finish line first, which might be one reason why the broadcast appeared to believe he was the winner. The foot isn't what matters, though. Lyles' torso crossed before Thompson's torso, and it took a close examination of the finish to determine that the American star had the edge.
Below is the official photo from the photo finish.
The Olympics uses imaging with Fully Automatic Timing to determine the winner. The camera takes continuous, narrow images of the finish line, allowing those in charge to see exactly when a runner crosses for the first time.
The winner was hard enough to determine in slow motion. In real time, it was virtually impossible to know who had the edge in those final couple of seconds.
Lyles hit a top speed of 27.1 mph during the race, ahead of Thompson's 26.8. That surge allowed him to catch up with Thompson just in time to lurch ahead for the victory despite trailing nearly the entire way.
What a year it is for the photo finish, as the Kentucky Derby required a photo finish on the same weekend a NASCAR race required a photo finish in May. Those photo finishes are a bit simpler, though: who (or what) crossed the line first? In the case of the 100-meter, it's a question of which torso crossed first .
Here are more details on how the winner was determined.
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Olympics 100m tiebreaker rule, explained
The 100-meter final went to a photo finish, but there wasn't necessarily a tiebreaker applied to determine the winner. In this case, it was determined that Lyles did cross the finish line just before Thompson did — and it wasn't his feet that crossed first.
A runner's finish is determined by the moment their torso crosses the finish line. The feet are not what get a runner over the finish line, just like a runner can't stick out their arm in hopes it crosses the finish line before the other competitors.
The head doesn't count, either, but you will almost always see sprinters stick out their heads when approaching the finish line because moving the head forward naturally moves the top of the torso forward. As soon as the torso crosses, the job is done.
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