Noah Lyles sprints to the fastest version of himself when he makes Olympic return
At the age of 26, Noah Lyles proves he’s reaching his full potential when he is a candidate for the second Olympic Games, winning the 100m final for men at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.
EUGENE — Noah Lyles sprinted with an autumn-like breeze at his back, shaded from the setting sun by seats rising to form the west side of Hayward Field, from starting blocks toward the finish line of the U.S. Olympic Trials 100m away, and then he kept on going, around the turn and down the backstretch of the rust-colored track, another 150m beyond what was required. He ran from Oregon toward France and the Paris Olympic Games, from a terrific now toward an ever-more promising next. He ran toward all those things.
Lyles also ran, further and more fully fulfilling a prophecy that was written 8 years earlier, which was so far back that it was at an entirely different arena (and to many aspects, a completely different date). He was only 18 years old young, and wore the red blue, white and yellow uniform at his school of high-school in suburbs of Washington, D.C. The Trials have a passion for nothing more than speed and Lyles was a perfect example of it. He was a semifinalist in the 200m race and placed 4th in the championship. He missed the Olympic team by only .09-seconds. The track and field, in turn is obsessed with the ability to translate that precocity into future success. Noah Lyles, the sport has decided, would be a great.
However, anticipated excellence — and particularly Olympic excellence, the kind that is most important on track and fieldis almost always longer than planned and is not made certain. Lyles has been awarded four individual world titles but only a bronze in the 200m event at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. On Sunday evening, Lyles who is now 26, set a personal record of 9.83 seconds set when taking home the title of world champion in season in Budapest. He beat the 2022 world champion Fred Kerleyand Tokyo Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarekwith 30m left to go, and after crossing the finish line, he threw his right arm up in the air raising his index fingers to celebrate.
On Saturday, he’ll run the final 200m (provided that he makes it through the round and passes the rounds, which is almost certain) and will try to be a part of his way onto the U.S. team in a second race and possibly be the very only U.S. male sprinter to take home an Olympic 200m and 100m in the same event in the past since Carl Lewis in 1984.
The prophecy is now It’s more accurate than ever. “This is basically the play,” Lyles said Lyles during his press conference following the race. “And the play is good right now.”
Don’t get it wrong: Lyles’s resume is impressive. If he were to retire on the horizon (he will not, but keep me in mind) He could be among the top U.S. sprinters in history. However, he’s not the greatest and that’s a possibility in the future. He was the winner of the 200m world title in the year 2019 and in 2022, he again took home the title of world champion with a time of 19.31 seconds, eclipsing Michael Johnson’s American record. This summer, he won the 200m and 100m races at the world championships, and he also competed in Team USA’s gold medal 4x100m relay. What took place during the middle of the world championships that has muddy Lyles’s record.
He was in the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics for 2021 and was a favorite in the 200m race, but he finished third. If asked following the race about his feelings about winning the bronze medal, He replied, “Boring.” (He’s still not thrilled about it). Following Saturday’s first round of 100 meters, when asked regarding the award, he replied, “I don’t like that thing”). But there was more. In a lengthy interview after the race with a small group of reporters, Lyles wept openly and discussed his struggles with depression (which was revealed to the world in a Facebook post several months prior). He talked about a conversation which the couple discussed “… how difficult a time it’s had.”
Lyles’s coach Lance Brauman said, “Long story, Covid was hard on Lyles. He was swollen the majority of 2021, and so we were unable to complete the work required to complete the hundred.” — [Lyles did not make the U.S. team in the 100m in 2021] ” -He then got into decent shape, and he lost in the Games. This is just the second time that he’s ever been defeated in the professional 200m. It occurred at a very bad moment for the guy.”
Three years have gone by. The three world championships won by Lyles prove that he’s recovered his athletic peak (or is on the way to it). Lyles said that his mental health has improved and. “It’s a completely different year [from 2021],” Lyles said. Lyles. “I mean one, I’m not depressed. That helps. In 2021, there was a lot more pressure just because of the depression and coming off Covid. The sucky thing about Covid is that we all had to stop the progression that we had from the previous year and we were on a lot of dead time. We were training in parks, training in random places. But now coming off 2023, I had a great year to build upon for this year.”
More. Lyles has always attempted to turn the races into a spectacle as if he were in Usain Bolt’s (very big) shoes. Sometimes, it felt unnatural, particularly in 2021. However, now Lyles appears to be ebullient in the race, and off the track He has also infused his race with social-media and media quips like the silver briefcase the rapper — or in this case, Snoop Dogg — brings to the stadium. Prior to the 100m final He was introduced as the to the ninth starter and then exploded out of the tunnel that was behind the block as if running the race. He then bounded 30m along the track.
“Usually I don’t feel pressure because I’m just having fun,” said Lyles. “All I gotta do is be me. I constantly tell kids, ‘Be yourself,’ and if people see that as being corny, shoot, I’m corny. But guess what? I’m winning while being corny.”
Brauman admits that he has openly the door to it and encouraged the team to open up. “He needs to be himself and that’s who he is and I’m all for it. He loves it, and it gets him going. My thing is, if we’re at practice and I ask him a question or I have something to say, he listens and pays attention and works hard and that’s all you can ask for in my job. As for the rest of it, I mean if that stuff gets him going, if it gets him excited and he wants to be a showman, I’m all for it.”
Lyles was prepared for the final. After completing a tense 9.92 seconds, and a complete shut-down after a 60m run in the heat of Saturday, Lyles easily won his semifinal on Sunday with a time of 9.80 seconds, despite the wind too strong at his back to make it a records or personal bests. Lyles’s speed was not the only factor, but the final was bound to be extremely highly competitive. Lyles took place in Lane 7 and outside within Lane 8, was Kerley and inside the Lane 6, was Bednarek and to his left to Lane 4. Christian Coleman, the world 100m champion of 2019, who was unable to compete in the Tokyo Olympics because of a series of drug tests.
It was a very difficult sport — which it always will be that Brauman advised him to, “Just make sure you’re on the team.” He also told reporters later, “That team is the hardest team in the world to make. Meets like these, you don’t even worry about time.” (Just inquire with Coleman who came in with a soaring fourthplace .05-seconds in the second place spot behind Kerley).
Lyles was working from 2021 on how to improve his performance and he got off to a strong (if not blinding during the last. The two Kerley as well as Bednarek were a little ahead of Lyles, but his top gear is among the best on the planet. “I didn’t feel like I had to press very hard,” Lyles said. Lyles. “I felt that my knees were moving right into the course, directly beneath me, and every step was more intense than the previous. So, I’m thinking I’m in this race and I was telling myself I was not going to slow down until the end. ….”
Then he swung his arm and, at the top was only one index finger.
“Next time I run,” Lyles said. Lyles. “No celebrations.”
