PARIS – NBC announcer Leigh Diffey said “I got it wrong” on his botched Paris Olympics call that incorrectly identified Kishane Thompson of Jamaica as winner of the 100 meters. The race was a photo finish and went to American sprinter Noah Lyles.
Diffey, NBC’s regular play-by-play announcer for IndyCar who is calling his sixth Olympics and second track and field competition, took responsibility for his rush to declare a winner in a social media post Monday.
“The men’s 100 was epic & closest of all time! My eyes & instinct told me Kishane Thompson won,” Diffey wrote. “Obviously, that wasn’t the case. I shouldn’t have been so bold to call it, but I genuinely thought he won. I got it wrong.”
He added he was thrilled for Lyles “as his story only gets bigger!” Lyles, the first American to win the event since Justin Gatlin 20 years ago, will try to make it a sweep later this week when he goes for gold in the 200 meters.
Diffey declined to offer much more comment when reached by The Associated Press, saying “I’d rather not fuel the fire.”
“They’re all experts after it’s over, right? I trusted my eyes and instinct and got it wrong by .0005 seconds,” Diffey told AP.
The race was so close that even Lyles seemed to think he had lost to Thompson as they waited for the results to be posted on the big screen at Stade de France.
Seconds earlier, Diffey had given the win to Thompson.
“There’s an Olympic gold medal waiting for somebody,” Diffey said as the race began. “Who wants it the most? … This is close. … Jamaica’s gonna do it! Kishane Thompson is a gold medalist!”
Ato Bolden, the NBC analyst alongside Diffey, also thought Thompson was the winner. As Thompson paced the track — yelling “C’mon man!” — Bolden couched his declaration of a winner but believed it was the Jamaican.
“It was a lean at the tape by Thompson, visually we think he got it,” Bolden said. “They’re working on the photo.”
The cameras then focused on Lyles and Diffey noted, “Noah Lyles is looking anxiously,” at the same time that Lyles began to celebrate. It was only then that Diffey declared the correct winner, which was already obvious by Lyles’ celebration.
“It’s Noah Lyles! And it had to go to a photo finish to decide it!” Diffey called. Large gaps of silence followed as Diffey and Boldon regrouped.
Lyles won with a time of 9.784 seconds, while Thompson was clocked at 9.789.
Fred Kerley of the United States won bronze with a time of 9.81, and Diffey was slow to announce that as well, only doing so when Lyles embraced his teammate.
Viewers took to social media to pan Diffey’s mistake, and the call seemed to have been tweaked by NBC in its replay aired in the United States during primetime Sunday to make the error less obvious.
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