Noah Lyles, 27 years old, is the best and most consistent sprinter since Usain Bolt retired in 2017. No one can argue with a six-time world champion. And he has the charisma, the angel and the courage not to hide anything from himself. And ambition, even too much, they say to the USA team. Lyles, world champion of the 100, 200 and 4×100 at the World Championships in Budapest last year, will attempt the same triplet in Paris, where this Sunday he will run in the semifinal and final (9:50 pm) of the 100 meters. That means he will try to be the Bolt of Beijing 2008, at least in gold, as the Jamaican is unlikely to lose any of his records in Paris. And he wants a fourth card, the 4×400 relay, but it’s not clear he’ll be let. Maybe some round, but it will be difficult for him to appear in the final because the competition in his own team is very good.
Today’s Lyles are bright, ambitious. “When I retire, I want to leave athletics at a higher level than today. “I have the speed, personality, sense of show and marketing needed.” The headline, published in ‘Time’, makes him look arrogant , but at this point the number one favorite of the sprint doesn’t care. He’s already struggled to get here. He’s the boy who grew up with severe asthma, forcing his mother to stay by his side was sleeping, making sure he was getting enough rest. The boy who had been bullied at school for so many years, “they were so cruel to me,” he confessed. And he was the same person who was slow to admit it, before the Tokyo Games, three years ago, that he needed help. He had all the signs of depression, but he was afraid to admit it and start treatment.
But he had to make the move. In Tokyo things did not go well, bronze in the 200 when everyone pointed to him for gold. He started the medicine then. And another Lyles was born, whose results accompanied him to the World Cups, and now he hopes to receive an Olympic accolade. A renewed man, different because of the work of his mental coach, Diana McNab. Combined with a solid training group in Florida under Lance Brauman, his results are getting better and better. Since his loss in the Tokyo final, he has had three years and 25 consecutive victories in the 200, a distance where it is more frightening than the 100.
And parallel to Noah Lyles reborn on an athletic level, there is the ‘performer’, the magnet of attention on the track. He was the one who said last year that he was a world champion and not the NBA champions, who had been claiming that title for years when they won the ring in the finals. A sentence that put him in the spotlight and generated massive criticism from basketball stars. Today, Lyles is a constant show, with pop culture references in his presentations before competing, with a newly released contract with Adidas, a YouTube channel, a company that advises him on content, he is the image of Omega and Visa, and starred in a Netflix documentary.
Paris will say whether, in sporting terms, Noah Lyles is worthy of Olympic glory, but for now this is the best the ‘post-Bolt’ sprint has found.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Jason Root, a professional writer working with Today Times Live, the premier news website. I specialize in sports writing, covering the biggest stories in the world of athletics. With an eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, I provide engaging and informative articles that capture the key elements of any event or issue. My work has been featured on numerous respected websites and publications around the world.
