A new chapter of the U.S.-Jamaica sprint rivalry began at the Paris Olympics, was rekindled through words last month and should continue on the track at the World Championships this weekend.
The men’s 100m final at worlds in Tokyo — on Sunday morning U.S. time (CNBC and Peacock) — is expected to be another showdown between American Noah Lyles and Jamaican Kishane Thompson.
Last summer, Lyles and Thompson authored a photo finish in the Paris Olympic 100m final.
“I think you got that one,” Lyles told Thompson as they waited for the results to appear on a scoreboard.
NOAH LYLES’ OLYMPIC DREAM COMES TRUE!
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 4, 2024
100M GOLD MEDALIST. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/qR6bkXLHhE
Lyles was never so thrilled to be wrong. He overtook Thompson in the final meters by five thousandths of a second — 9.784 to 9.789.
“It shook my existence,” Thompson later told Netflix.
This year, Thompson won the Jamaican Championships in 9.75 seconds — the world’s best time in a decade.
Thompson then beat Lyles on Aug. 16 — 9.87 to 9.90 — in their first head-to-head since Paris.
“He’s a great competitor. He’s a very fast man,” Lyles, still ramping up after a spring ankle injury, said of Thompson in an interview that day with Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “I still feel like he’s in my pocket. Next time we race, I’ll have something even better.”
Minutes later, Thompson responded to those words by saying with a smile, “My pocket’s going to be so far ahead (next time), so let’s see.”
Either an American or a Jamaican won the last 10 men’s world 100m titles dating to 2005, plus six of the last seven Olympic men’s 100m titles dating to 2000.
Usain Bolt won all but one of Jamaica’s seven titles in that stretch. After Bolt retired in 2017, no Jamaican man won a 100m medal until Thompson took silver in Paris in his global championship debut.
Now Lyles — who had a social media tiff with Bolt in 2019, since smoothed over — bids to become the first man to repeat as world 100m champion since Bolt in 2013 and 2015.
Thompson will try to stop him.
“Honestly, it’s me against myself,” Thompson said when asked about facing both Lyles and U.S. 100m champion Kenny Bednarek. “Naturally, they’re going to add to the flame and the competition. That adds so much volume to the feel and the potential of doing out there. But that adds to my potential of even going faster.”
While Lyles’ trademark race is the 200m, he has never lost a global championship in the 100m: gold at 2016 World Juniors, 2023 Worlds and the 2024 Olympics.
In each of his three 100m finals in 2025, Lyles faced the same challenge as in Paris: chase down a Jamaican in the last half of the race.
Each time this season — which he said has probably been his most chaotic due to the spring injury — he was runner-up.
“Acceleration,” Lyles said last month, while not specifying the 100m or 200m, “is probably going to be the biggest difference between medaling and getting gold.”
