Many fans have been captivated by the dramatic photo finish in the men’s 100-meter final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where Noah Lyles defeated Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson. The razor-thin margin has captivated the crowd and sparked intense debate over how officials determined the result.

Here's a detailed breakdown of how Lyles claimed victory in one of the most exciting Olympic sprints ever, and we explain the photo-finish technology that determined the outcome.

A photo finish at the Olympic Games determines the winner when competitors cross the finish line almost simultaneously.

High-speed cameras capture multiple frames per second at the finish line, allowing the order of finishers to be accurately determined. This technology is crucial for exciting races, providing accuracy down to fractions of a second. The images from the cameras are analyzed to see whose torso crosses the finish line first, providing an objective and verifiable result.