Noah Lyles, USA Swimming gold medal performance produced 35 million viewers, second largest audience of 2024 Paris Olympics

Noah Lyles’ triumph in Sunday’s 100-meter final and Team USA’s three medal performances on the final day of swimming drew a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 35.4 million viewers on NBC, Peacock and across all NBCUniversal platforms, the network announced Monday.

That is the second-largest audience of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris thus far, and more than doubles the audience for the comparable Sunday of competition in the COVID-19 impacted 2020 Tokyo Olympics (17.4 million across all platforms). Dating back to the Opening Ceremony, NBCU has posted a 10-day TAD average of 33.0 million viewers, up 80% from Tokyo (18.3 million).

Simply put, these Olympics have been a resounding success, with several Americans, such as Lyles, pulling in viewers. Lyles’ bid to win gold in the 100-meter final was the draw of Sunday’s action, and the race did not disappoint. He edged out Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by 0.005 seconds to win his first career gold medal, the closest 1-2 finish in the 100-meter since at least Moscow back in 1980.

Lyles, 27, is the first American to win gold in the 100-meter final since Justin Gatlin in 2004. He will be back at it on Thursday, competing in the 200-meter final. Lyles is looking to become the 10th sprinter and first American since Carl Lewis in 1984 to claim gold in the 100-meter-200-meter double in a single Olympics.

Noah Lyles, Team USA Swimming draw large number of viewers to 2024 Paris Olympics

U.S. Swimming, meanwhile, not only captured three medals but set two world records. Bobby Finke posted a world record time of 14:30.67 in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle, while the women’s quartet of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Welsh and Torri Huske finished over three seconds ahead of the second-place Australians in the 4×100 medley relay. They established a new world record with a time of 3:49.63. In the men’s 4×100 medley relay, Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel and Hunter Armstrong swam their way to a silver medal.

Finke’s win extended Team USA’s streak dating back to 1904 of at least one male American winning a gold medal in an individual Olympics swimming event.