PARIS, France — Three Olympians with ties to Virginia had big moments on Sunday.
Noah Lyles, who grew up in Alexandria, took home the gold in the 100-meter dash by .005 seconds Sunday, waiting some 30 seconds after the finish of an excruciatingly close sprint to find out he’d beaten Kishane Thompson of Jamaica.
The word “Photo” popped up on the scoreboard after Lyles and Thompson dashed to the line. Lyles paced the track with his hands draped over his head. Finally, the numbers came up. Lyles won in 9.784 seconds to edge out the Jamaican by five-thousandths of a tick of the clock.
Lyles now sets his sights on the 200-meter dash.
Chesapeake's Grant Holloway was the fastest across all five heats in the qualifiers for the 110-meter hurdles with a 13.01 time. He looks ahead to the semifinals on Wednesday. He is looking for his first Olympic gold after winning three straight world titles. He was runner-up at the Tokyo Games.
UVA's Gretchen Walsh swam the butterfly leg in the women's 4X100 medley relay, helping to secure the 8th gold medal for Team USA. The US women, including Walsh, Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink and Torri Huske, finished in 3 minutes, 37.43 seconds, .12 seconds ahead of China. They broke the world record of 3:37.58 established by Britain when the event debuted at the Tokyo Games.