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It was not the best in history, but the men's 100m final at the Paris 2024 Olympics was the most intense.
Twelve-hundredths separated the first, Noah Lyles (9.79), from the last, Oblique Seville (9.91).
Both the American and Jamaican Kishane Thompson became the fifth and sixth men to go under 9.80 in an Olympic final.
In addition, South Africa's Akane Simbine (9.82) was the fourth fastest finisher in a 100m final in history in any competition. Also, Jacobs (9.85) and Tebogo (9.86) had the dubious honor of being the fifth and sixth fastest ever. And, of course, seventh (Bednarek, 9.88) and Seville.
Lyles was behind the whole race
Noah Lyles doesn't react fast. He did it in 178 thousandths, seven hundredths slower than Fred Kerley, who finished third.
The Gainesville man was last until meter 40 and until meter 90 he was second, one hundredth behind Thompson, whom he had to overtake around meter 94. Seville, the last-placed runner, would have been bronze-tied with DiGrasse in the 2016 Games.
The top speed was Simbine per leg
Interestingly, the highest peak speed was not reached by any of the athletes on the podium.
Simbine was the one who did it in the stretch between 60 and 70 meters, which he ran in 0.81 seconds.
The South African was one of the two who set a national record; Tebogo, from Botswana, was the other. The latter was the one who achieved it in top speed (44.67 km/h), suring the 44.48 reached by Usain Bolt in Beijing 2008, according to the biomechanical data of the Games.
Lyles is already with the greatest
The Olympics and World Championship double in the straight had only been achieved so far in consecutive years by five athletes: Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin, Maurice Greene, Donovan Bailey and Carl Lewis.
The champion also equaled Usain Bolt's record: no one had ever run under 9.80 in Paris, except the Jamaican in 2009. He also did it in 9.79.
The champion's bad omen
Lyles approached Thompson at the finish line and told him: "I think the gold is yours, big guy".
He got the prediction wrong. It was the shortest gap in history measured in time because when Alan Wells equaled 10.25 with Cuba's Silvio Leonard at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, it was measured in 76 millimeters.
The difference in distance between Lyles and Thompson had to be, according to extrapolation, 62 millimeters.