Incredible photo finish at 100m race reminds fans of familiar movie
Aug 4, 2024; Paris Saint-Denis, France; Noah Lyles (USA) reacts after competing in a men’s 100m semifinal during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Stade de France. Mandatory Credit: Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports
The ending of the men’s 100m final at the 2024 Paris Olympics felt like it was taken straight out of a movie. Several fans think that movie might be Pixar’s “Cars.”
On Sunday, U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles won his first Olympic gold medal by besting Jamaican Kishane Thompson by five-thousandths of a second at Stade de France in Paris. Lyles had a final time of 9.784 seconds, while Thompson was at 9.789. The third-place finisher, American Fred Kerley, finished with a final time of 9.81.
The finish was so close that the NBC announcer botched the call and initially declared Thompson the winner (video here).
The photo finish had fans on X remembering a scene from the movie “Cars,” which was produced by Pixar and released by Disney in 2006.
In the movie, protagonist Lightning McQueen forces a tie with his two competitors by sticking his tongue out to reach the finish line.
Lyles didn’t use any tongue trickery to win his race. But fans couldn’t help but notice how each sprinter’s uniform colors eerily resembled the colors of the cars in the movie.
Peep the colors 🤯 pic.twitter.com/2Unig6M3tJ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 4, 2024
In the “Cars” movie, the race was so close that they had to re-do the race.
In real life, the Olympics had the benefit of extremely high-definition cameras to determine a true winner without needing a restart.
