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Paris Olympics: What to know about Noah Lyles, Team USA's best chance at its first 100-meter gold since 2004
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The title of "World's fastest man" will once again be up for grabs at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. You can bet Noah Lyles will be applying for the role.
It has been 20 years since Team USA last struck gold in the 100-meter dash, one of the marquee competitions of the Games. Justin Gatlin won the gold medal in Athens, Greece, with a time of 9.85 in a razor-thin race that saw the three medalists separated by a total of 0.02 seconds.
Since then, well, have you heard of a man named Usain Bolt? The Jamaican sprinter won the next three Olympic 100-meter dashes, an all-time record in the event. After Bolt's retirement in 2017, Italy's Marcell Jacobs stunned the world in Tokyo.
Jacobs is once again in the field in Paris, but he hasn't done much since winning his gold medal. Instead, the event is shaping up to be a battle between Lyles and Jamaica's Kishane Thompson.
The 100-meter dash won't be the only individual event on Lyles' program, though. He will be running another sprint, which also happens to be his best event: the 200-meter dash, where he is the heavy favorite. He will also be on Team USA's squad for the 4x100-meter relay, and has been pushing to be part of the 4x400-meter team as well.
Noah Lyles' pre-Paris résumé is impressive
Essentially, Lyles will be looking for a repeat of the 2023 World Championships, where he captured the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4x100-meter relay titles in Budapest, Hungary.
Lyles has some reason to be confident beyond being the reigning world champion in each. About a week before the Opening Ceremony in Paris, he ran a personal best in the 100-meter dash at 9.83 seconds in a Diamond League meet. It wasn't the fastest time of the year, though, as Thompson ran a 9.77 in June. Their battle could be one of the biggest stories of the Olympics.
As for the 200-meter race, Lyles has been looking strong. He is the two-time defending world champion, with his 2022 time of 19.31 seconds ranking as the best time in the world since 2011. The only two men to ever run the race faster are Bolt and Yohan Blake.
Noah Lyles' previous Olympics didn't go very well
The thing about Noah Lyles' potential superstardom is that he's 27 years old. This isn't his first bite at the apple.
So what happened in run-up to Tokyo? Very few good things for Lyles, even if he has a bronze medal to show for it.
Lyles, then 24 years old, wanted to go for the 100-200-relay gold at the Tokyo Games as well. Like every athlete involved, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in those plans, delaying the entire process by a year. It was a particularly tough time for Lyles, who has been public about his struggles with depression.
When the process finally began, Lyles had a rough time at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He wasn't the 100-meter favorite, but his seventh-place finish was a surprise and kept him out of the event in Tokyo. He was the 200-meter favorite, but fell in both his heat and semifinal to teenager Erriyon Knighton. He did win the final, though.
In the actual Olympics, Lyles only competed in the 200-meter dash (he wasn't part of Team USA's disastrous loss in the 4x-100-meter relay heat). The singular nature of his program didn't help.
Lyles had the lead in the final stretch of his 200-meter semifinal, but — for reasons known only to him — opted to take his foot off the gas, allowing Canada's Aaron Brown and Liberia's Joseph Fahnbulleh to pass him in a race where only the two fastest men qualify for the final. Fortunately, Lyles still qualified as a "fastest loser."
In the final, Lyles again held a lead coming out of the turn, but got passed by Canada's Andre De Grassis and Team USA's Kenneth Bednarik, forcing the 2019 world champion to settle for bronze. He fought back tears in his news conference, laying bare his mental health struggles.
Noah Lyles wants his personality to help grow track and field
Lyles will become an international star if he defeats Thompson in the 100-meter dash, but in many ways, he is already treated like one. And he definitely acts like one.
He has had both NBC Sports and Netflix filming him this year for documentary projects, in addition to his regularly updated YouTube channel. In February, he signed a deal with Adidas through 2028 that is said to be his sport's richest contract since the retirement of Bolt.
His persona is, in a word, loud. He has drawn no shortage of detractors by never neglecting to speak his mind or forego an opportunity, but he has at least one fan:
"Keep your same attitude, bro," Bolt told Lyles. "The sport needs that s***. We need a personality."
Lyles has made it clear he wants to grow the sport of track and field, much like Bolt did, and believes the way to do it is a combination of success and charisma.
Noah Lyles' biggest feud: the USA basketball team
Lyles has plenty of rivals, but maybe the most notable one is an inter-sport affair.
It all began last August, after Lyles' triumph at the world championships. He used the opportunity to make an interesting dig at how the NBA champions are treated:
"You know the thing that hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have 'world champion' on their head. World champion of what? The United States? Don't get me wrong, I love the U.S. 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, putting on their flag to show that they are represented. There ain't no flags in the NBA."
It's not that Lyles was wrong, but NBA players didn't take that lying down, with Kevin Durant and Draymond Green both weighing in and Aaron Gordon joking, "Whatever … I’m smoking buddy in the 200m."
Lyles continued to needle the basketball players after Team USA's loss in the FIBA World Cup. He might do something similar if the LeBron James-led team in Paris wins anything other than gold, and the feeling could be mutual if he falters on the track.
