Paris Olympics: Noah Lyles ends USA's 20-year wait for an American gold in the blue riband event.

American Noah Lyles banished his Tokyo demons — and avoided a likely backlash over his now-infamous NBA ‘world champion’ comments — as he stormed to Olympic 100m glory in Paris in his continuing bid to fill the void left by Usain Bolt.

Lyles followed up on his treble gold (100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay) at last year’s world championships in Budapest by winning the 100m at the Stade de France in 9.79 seconds in a dramatic photo finish.

It ended a 20-year wait for an American gold in the Blue Riband event. Justin Gatlin was the last sprinter, man or woman, to win Olympic 100m gold.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has dubbed Lyles, whose contract renewal with Adidas this season was described as the biggest since Bolt’s with Puma, an “absolute rock star”.

Dread-locked rapper more than a rock star, the 27-year-old American’s efforts in the Hungarian capital were captured in Netflix’s docuseries entitled “Sprint”.

A second season is being filmed with the Paris Games as the backdrop. The cameras firmly shine the spotlight on the self-assured Lyles, who looks more than ready to bring the track back into the wider public consciousness and whose brashness was clear for all to hear in a litany of quotable soundbites in the first series.

 “You have to have the mindset of a god,” Lyles said of being a top sprinter in “Sprint”.

“I’m a true believer that the moment isn’t bigger than me, the moment was made for me.” While many pundits insist that such an outlook is hardly rare for elite athletes, there is no doubt his brazen approach rubs many other people up the wrong way, not least legions of NBA basketball players -- and their fans -- after Lyles had questioned their claim to be real “world champions”.

Lyles made some inflammatory remarks during the World Athletics Championships when asked about he state of athletics on a global scale.

“You know the thing that hurts me the most?” he began. “I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their heads.

“World champion of what? The United States?

 “Don’t get me wrong. I love the US at times. But that ain’t the world. That is not the world - we are the world.

“We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, and putting on a flag to show that they are represented.

“There ain’t no flags in the NBA. We have to do more. We got to be presented to the world.

“I love the track community, but we can only do so much within our bubble. There’s a whole world out there.”

The comments did not go down well with the NBA community, with many players — including Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, and Aaron Gordon — hitting back hard.

“Somebody help this brother,” NBA superstar Durant said.

Lyles may well have been setting himself up for more vitriol had he not saluted on his 100m favouritsm — with some on social media turning on him over an underwhelming heats performance. However, he got the job done — albeit by 0.005 seconds — to effectively put the pressure now on Team USA to deliver.

New York Knicks star Josh Hart tweeted his respect and said Lyles could now “talk for life”.