Noah Lyles fell just short of a historic double at the Paris Olympics, finishing third in the 200m behind Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. Lyles’ teammate, American Kenny Bednarek, won his second consecutive silver medal, while Lyles took his second bronze in the event.
Disappointment soon gave way to a terrifying scene as doctors wheeled Lyles off the track in a wheelchair after his third-place finish.
After winning the 100m final earlier in the week in a historic photo finish, Lyles got off to a slow start on Thursday. He ultimately failed to catch Bednarek, who led from start to finish and won in 19.46 seconds. Bednarek finished in 19.62 and Lyles rounded the turn in 19.70.
Lyles now has two bronze medals in the 200, including her third-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Bronze medalist Noah Lyles of Team USA competes during the men’s 200-meter final.
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo celebrates winning the gold medal in the 200m final
Gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Team Botswana is congratulated by Noah Lyles of Team USDA
Winning gold in the 100m and 200m at the same Olympics is a rare feat.
Usain Bolt achieved this double in three consecutive Olympic Games: in Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016. But until the Jamaican, no man had achieved it since Carl Lewis in Los Angeles in 1984.
At his last Games, eight years ago, Bolt was losing ground in the 200m semi-final and suddenly noticed Andre De Grasse running at full speed. Bolt then picked up speed and gave the Canadian the finger. Fast forward to the final: Bolt won easily.
Lyles had previously won the 100m final in a historic photo finish.
The American showman beat Jamaican Kishane Thompson by five thousandths of a second (or 0.005 of a tick) in a historic race on Sunday.
The final tally on this one: Lyles 9.784 seconds, Thompson 9.789.
The new champion said that before leaving for Paris, one of his physiotherapists assured him that this race would be very competitive.
“He said, ‘This is how close first and second are going to be,'” Lyles said, placing his thumb and index finger together so they were almost touching. “I can’t believe how right he was.”
To put this into perspective, a blink lasts, on average, 0.1 second, or 20 times longer than the interval between the first and second blinks.
It was so close that when the sprinters crossed the line and the word “Photo” appeared next to the names of Lyles, Thompson and five others in the eight-man field, Lyles walked up to the Jamaican and said, “I think you’ve got the dog of the Olympics.”
Thompson, who was running three lanes to the left of Lyles and had no idea where he was on the track, was not convinced.
“I thought, ‘Wow, I’m not even sure, because it was so close,'” the Jamaican said.
Time would tell. It always does. When Lyles’ name first surfaced, he pulled his name tag from the front of his bib and held it up to the sky. Moments later, he shouted into the television camera, “America, I told you I could do it!”
The top four riders were separated by less than 0.03 seconds. The top seven finished within 0.09 seconds of each other.
American Fred Kerley finished third with a time of 9.81. “It was probably one of the most beautiful races I’ve ever participated in,” he said.
In the final photo, Kerley’s orange shoe crossed the line before anyone or anything. But it’s the chest that breaks the barrier that counts. Lyles’ chest crossed first.
This was the closest 1-2 result in the 100m since at least Moscow in 1980, or perhaps even since forever.