A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Some days at the summer Olympics, there is amazing sport. Some days, athletes make history. Yesterday was a day for both.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In Paris, American Noah Lyles won gold in the 100-meter sprint by 0.005 of a second. Also, U.S. swimmers grabbed two gold medals and shattered two world records in the pool.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Brian Mann is in Paris. Brian, Noah Lyles now Olympic champion. But he needed to make up some ground late and fast.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Yeah, Lyles was slow off the blocks, A, and he trailed everybody for almost half the race in this 100-meter final. Then he poured on that amazing speed. He bumped out his chest and by just the narrowest fraction got ahead of Jamaica's Kishane Thompson. Here's Lyles speaking after the race.
NOAH LYLES: Everybody in the field, to be honest, came out knowing that they could win this race. And, you know, that's the mindset that we have to have, you know? Iron sharpens iron, of course.
MANN: Noah Lyles now the fastest man on Earth. The first time in 20 years an American man has won this Olympic race.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And Lyles now tries for gold in the 200 meters next. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmers, they were wrapping up competition in the pool. And after a very slow start in Paris, they finished with a bang. What happened to them?
MANN: Well, they showed amazing resilience. Not only did they bounce back, they bounced back big, winning two more gold medals last night. But here's the big thing - they shattered two world records. The first was Bobby Finke. He swam the 1,500-meter. That's almost a mile. He was so fast right from the start, A, it was clear he would win gold. And the question really was, would he be fast enough for the world record? Here he is talking about pushing for that mark.
BOBBY FINKE: Towards the end of it, it was really starting to hurt a lot, especially that last, like,400. But I knew going in it was going to hurt, did it with the world record, so I'm really proud about that.
MANN: So right after Bobby Finke's world record, the team of American women took to the water for the 4 x100 medley relay race swimming against a really tough race - field of swimmers. But they won easily. They broke another world record. They were led by Torri Huske, who, A, is one of the new American stars who emerged this year. Huske won three gold and two silver medals in Paris.
MARTÍNEZ: Finke led while he got wet. The second he got wet, he was in the lead, and he never gave it up. That was an amazing race.
MANN: That's right.
MARTÍNEZ: And the U.S. has pretty much always been a powerhouse in the pool, eight Olympic gold medals this year. But it's down from an average of about 10 or 11. Has something changed?
MANN: Well, the short answer is yes. Everyone's talking about it here, the athletes, the coaches. The rest of the world is just getting better and faster. The U.S. used to have this big rivalry with one team, the Australian swimmers, but now the Chinese are good. The Italians are good. There are huge French stars like Leon Marchand, Canadian stars like Summer McIntosh. Some races where the U.S. settled for silver or bronze the American swimmers actually set personal best times. They were performing well. Other swimmers from other countries just did better. And one thing that I will say here is that a person who stood out was Katie Ledecky. She is now the most decorated U.S. woman athlete in Olympic history.
KATIE LEDECKY: I hope that I'll look back on it with the same amount of joy and happiness that I feel right now and that I feel every day in training. And felt so much joy going out there and racing, and I think that's what I'm going to remember the most.
MANN: So Katie Ledecky a legend here in Paris.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Brian Mann in Paris. Thanks, Brian.
MANN: Thank you.
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