“That was fun,” Noah Lyles said, minutes after he ran a 9.81, his former fastest 100m timing before the Paris Olympics. Those not living under the rock clearly know that he had made his intention to be the ‘fastest’ man ever clear multiple times. But what does the clock say? As he stormed down the purple tracks at the Stade de France, he ran a 9.83 in the semifinals. While that was good enough to get him through to the finale show, has he ever gone faster than that?

To answer that, yes he did. Roughly 2 hours after the semis in Paris, Lyles ran a 9.79 in the finals to clinch the Olympic gold medal. This was not only his speediest time this season, but the best he has ever clocked in a 100m race. That makes 2 personal bests for him in the last month. Just days before flying down to the Olympic village, the American clocked a 9.81 at the London Athletics Meet 2024. “I could have had a better start but the transitions were great and coming away with a PB this has been what I prayed for and what I wanted,” Lyles had said in London. He made it clear that he still had enough gas in  his tank to go faster. And well, he proved that in the finals.

via Reuters

Interestingly, Lyles’ next fastest figures are 9.83 seconds. And he has clocked that thrice. He did in the 100m semifinals at the Paris Olympics. What’s more, these are the same scores that won him the ticket to Paris. At the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials 2024, he clocked a 9.83, that won him a gold. And stamped his ticket to his second Olympics. Also, the same numbers flashed on the screen when he ran them at the World Athletic Championships, Budapest, that made him the 100m world champion.

Lyles’ fourth best timing, 9.85, was clocked in Jamaica in June, 2024, while he attended the Racer’s Grand Prix, in Kingston. This was identical to the numbers he ran last year in September, at the Prefontaine Classic. Thus, it is evident that some of his best performances have just differed by milliseconds.

Noah Lyles’ may have had a slow start, but he soon caught speed

Speaking of Noah Lyles’ slowest 100m time recorded, it dates back to July 2012, when he ran an 11.27 at Newport News, Virginia, as per World Athletics. Gradually, his progression over the years shows significant improvement in his 100m timings. By June 2013, he was running sub-11 timings, and had clocked 10.86 at Newport News again. This was followed by his 10.45 at Greensboro in 2014 and 10.14 in Eugene in 2015.

While most of Lyles’ sprints post 2018 have had sub-10 timings, he has crossed that marker recently too. Like in the heat rounds of the Paris Olympics, he ran a 10.04 in the 100m sprint. However, he said that he was not running his 100 percent yet. With a wide smirk, he mentioned to a reporter, “I’m pretty scared for everybody else right now.” He even said, “I’m more excited now that I didn’t win the heat.” And today as he raced to victory, he put his best ‘foot’ forward to lower his own record. Do you think he is gradually getting closer to the world record time? Let us know below.