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NBC sports announcer Leigh Diffey blew the call during one of the biggest events in the Summer Olympics on Sunday night in Paris when he called the 100-meter dash for the wrong runner.
The race ended a 20-year drought for the U.S. when American Noah Lyles crossed the finish line quicker than Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by a hair – or a fraction of a second to be exact.
Lyles finished the race in 9.784 seconds – just .005 seconds ahead of Thompson and nose before American Fred Kerley who took the bronze.
In such a tight race, a still photo had to be used to decide the winner but that did not stop Diffey from Jumping the gun and calling the race for Thompson – and then never mentioning the errant call after Lyles was crowned the fastest man on the planet.
The AMAZING race that made Noah Lyles an Olympic gold medalist! 🔥 #ParisOlympicspic.twitter.com/diY0Ny1dxf
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 4, 2024
“There’s an Olympic gold medal waiting for somebody, who wants it the most?” Shouted Diffey as the racers sprinted to a wild finish.
As the runners crossed the finish line, the NBC broadcaster shouted, “Jamaica’s gonna do it! Kishane Thompson is a gold medalist!”
The race was so competitive that Diffey was ridiculed on social media for being quick to prematurely announce a winner.
I usually give broadcasters a lot of grace because their jobs are hard but I hope @richarddeitsch or someone does a deep dive into everything that went wrong there — seemed like an unmitigated disaster for one of the biggest moments in USA track and field in quite some time.
— Lindsay Gibbs (@linzsports) August 4, 2024
During the five munites of NBC’s coverage after the event neither Diffey nor anyone else at NBC acknowledged the initial call.
One angle of the race captured by a BBC camera showed just how close Lyles was in edging out the competition.
BBC. pic.twitter.com/PXxpvazkus
— Shane Thomas (@tokenbg) August 4, 2024
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