This was the thirtieth time that the men's
100 metres was contested at the
Summer Olympics. Interestingly, the final contained 6 men who had recorded top-25 all-time records in the 100m, making this final one of the most tightly contested in history, as the difference between the fastest man in the field
Fred Kerley (9.76) and the slowest
Kenny Bednarek (9.87) was only 0.11 seconds. For the first time in 100m history, the final was contested by 8 men who had all run under 10 seconds in the semi-finals. In fact, 12 of the 27 semi-finalists all ran under 10 seconds, with the gap between 8th-placed semi-finalist
Kenny Bednarek and 12th-placed
Andre De Grasse being just 0.05 seconds.
Noah Lyles came through in 1st place, 0.005 seconds ahead of 2nd-placed
Kishane Thompson, marking possibly one of the closest 1–2 finishes in Olympic 100-metre history. Both recorded times of 9.79; however, Lyles' time was 9.784, while Thompson's time was 9.789. Lyles had a slow start out of the blocks and, up until the 85-meter mark, was out of medal contention. Thompson was ahead for the entire race until the final inches of the race, where Lyles ran through. During the final,
Kishane Thompson was in lane 4 as the fastest qualifier with a time of 9.80 (he was also the fastest man in the world, this year). Lanes 6 and 7 contained
Oblique Seville and
Noah Lyles, respectively. These two men had competed in one of the semi-final heats, with Seville besting Lyles with a time of 9.81 to Lyles' 9.83.
Fred Kerley, who won silver at the
2020 Summer Olympics was in lane 3 as the 4th fastest qualifier with a time of 9.84. Places 5 to 8 ran the fastest times in history for those respective places. The time gap between 1st and 8th was only 0.12 seconds, which is the closest and overall fastest 100m race in history, and the first time in history that the entire field broke the
10-second barrier in a competitive race.
Fred Kerley finished with a season's best time taking 3rd place by just 0.01 ahead of
Akani Simbine, who set a new national record for
South Africa with a time of 9.82, bettering his time from the
2020 Olympics where he also finished 4th.
Marcell Jacobs who was the
gold medal winner in the
2020 Olympic 100 metres champion, finished 5th with a time of 9.85 which was also a season's best time for him. In 6th was
Letsile Tebogo (who broke the
300 metres world record in February) also set a national record for
Botswana with this time 9.86. Kerley’s time of 9.81 was also the fastest time in history for any man who didn't finish either 1st/2nd in a final or didn't win their semi-final race. Noticeably absent in the final was
Ferdinand Omanyala who had set the 2nd fastest time of 2024 just 6 weeks prior in June Lyles' win was the first American gold medal in the 100m race since
Justin Gatlin won in 2004. Lyles also set a seasons best and personal best with his winning time. The race was so close,
Leigh Diffey calling the race for American
NBC Sports declared Jamaican Kishane Thompson the winner, missing the American Noah Lyles. The top 6 all ran times that would have guaranteed a
gold,
silver or
bronze in every single Olympic 100m race prior (except for
2012). In fact, 6th-placed
Letsile Tebogo's time of 9.86 would have won silver in each 100m
Olympics apart from 2012 and
2020. == Background ==