Noah Lyles' wild 100m gold medal explained: How do photo finishes at the Olympic Games work?

Noah Lyles took gold in the men's 100m final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday in the most thrilling 100m race in recent memory. Jamaica's Kishane Thompson had looked to have crossed the line first on initial viewing, but a photo-finish decision saw that Lyles' torso had crossed the line 0.005 seconds before the Jamaican. It has naturally led many to ask, how do photo finishes work?

Watch thrilling photo finish in 100m final as Lyles claims stunning gold

Video credit: TNT Sports

So you thought Jamaica's Kishane Thompson won the men's 100m final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday? You were not the only one.

Noah Lyles, who won gold, did so by just 0.005 seconds.

Eurosport commentators initially thought that Thompson had edged it. A large portion of the Stade de France crowd likely thought it too as they saw his foot touch the finish line.

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Lyles himself even believed Thompson clinched it, letting his trademark bravado drop for the first time these Games.

The American and Jamaican sprinters watched the replay together until the verdict came in - a wait three times as long as the race itself - ulitmately declaring that Lyles had clinched victory in a dramatic photo finish and is now the Olympic 100m champion.

Naturally, many have found themselves asking how photo finishes work at the Olympics. We have all you need to know here.

how do photo finishes work?

In track and field events at the Olympics, the end of a lap, or the winner of a race, is determined by the moment their torso crosses the finish line.

The official photo from the IOC and Omega's photo finish camera shows Thompson's foot crossing the line before Lyles.

But Lyles' body crossed .005 seconds before Thompson, and a close look at the image shows the edge that Lyles had.

The cameras at the Olympics use Fully Automatic Timing to determine the winner, taking constant photos of the finish line in order to see the exact moment that a runner crosses it.

When a winner is hard enough to crown in slow motion or real-time, such as Sunday's impossible-to-determine final, the photo finish is used to find out the winner.

'I'm incredible!' - Lyles says he 'proved that I'm the man' in 100m final

Video credit: TNT Sports

Like in the first round and the semi-final, Lyles did not get out of the blocks well. By 20m he was in fifth place, and already the Olympic gold felt out of his reach.

His reaction time in the final was tied for worst in the eight-man field.

The American hit a top speed of 27.1mph, ahead of Thompson's 26.8, and that saw him catch up and edge ahead of the Jamaican at the most vital moment.

TEAM GB GO FROM SILVER TO BRONZE IN TRIATHLON PHOTO FINISH

The importance of photo-finish analysis was shown on Monday as Team GB's mixed relay triathlon team were initially awarded a silver medal, only for it to be downgraded to bronze shortly after.

The team of Beth Potter, Alex Yee, Georgia Taylor-Brown, and Sam Dickinson had gold within their grasp for so much of the race, only for Potter's 12-second lead to be cut down and reduce GB to silver.

And then, they were reduced to bronze moments later.

A review of the photo finish found that Potter had been beaten to second by American Taylor Knibb, wresting away the top two finish that had been in Team GB's grasp for the entirety of the race.

World Triathlon found that Knibb had crossed the line first with her chest.

Knibb and Potter were separated by a cruelly minuscule 0.01 on the line under the Parisian sun on Monday.

Asher-Smith suffers photo-finish heartbreak

Dina Asher-Smith bounced back from dissapointment in the 100m to put in an impressive performance in the 200m.

However, she fell victim to photo finish technology and had to settle for fourth behind Brittany Brown of the USA.

It could hardly have been closer, with Asher-Smith finishing 0.02 seconds behind her rival in a time of 22.22 seconds.

The technology had its work cut out for it during the final, with Asher-Smith's compatriot Daryll Neita finishing in 22.23 seconds.

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