Noah Lyles lost in the 200 final against Letsile Tebogo (19”46)

He prepared everything to become the great athletics star of the Games, but Noah Lyles (27 years old) crashed into a wall called Letsile Tebogo and he descends into the real world, where achievements are not so easy to achieve. Lyles He failed in his test, the 200m, against the 21-year-old from Botswana who ran 19.46, leading the North American Kenny Bednarek with 19″62 and Lyles, third with 19″70 and had to leave the track in a wheelchair. “I tested positive for Covid on Tuesday,” Lyles confessed. “I woke up in the middle of the night feeling real chills, sore throat, and those were a lot of the symptoms I felt before I got sick with Covid,” the American said.

“Only after knowing that is positive“I separated myself from my colleagues outside the Olympic Village, in a nearby hotel,” explained the American. “I took all the medicine that I can, respecting the legal limitations, to face the final in the best possible conditions. I wanted to run, I found it possible. I separated myself from everyone. I know that, in these conditions, if I want to win gold I have to give to the limit of my strength to achieve it,” he said to explain his departure from the track in a wheelchair.

“I had better days, but now I can walk on my own,” he said after getting out of his wheelchair and addressing the media. “When I finished the race I was a little dizzy,” he explained. “That was the day I felt the best of the last three. I wasn’t at 100%, but I was at 90-95%,” he explained with resignation.

Thank you gave Botswana its first gold medal in its history and did so in a big way, with a Stade de France filled with 80,000 people and enduring the mental challenge of the strict Lyles. The 21-year-old Botswana came out of the curve like a flash, in his long, round stride, without looking to the sides, without looking for references, his gaze only ahead, on nothing, on horizon, at the imaginary end. line in his head. He saw no rivals on his side as he was half a body ahead of them in the final stretch, where the drop in speed caused more damage. But Thank you He fought perfectly, he was the lowest loser and took home a famous gold. As soon as he learned of his victory, he tore the number off his chest in anger and held it up in front of the television camera to read his name out loud.Thank you“, so that people will consider him from now on and in the appropriate part of the fame that he gave himself Noah Lyles. In addition, the American received a yellow card for kicking the starting marker and destroying the number indicating his street.

“It was a really good race for me. When we got to the final, my coach He simply told me, now my work is done, it’s up to you what you can do. Whether it’s a medal or not, it’s just over,” explained the new Olympic 200 meters champion. One of those most emotional moment of his celebration was when he took off his spiked sneakers and revealed a message he had written in memory of her mother, died in May of this year. “I really carry it with every step I take on the court. He accompanies me. Wearing it gives me a lot of motivation. He was watching from above and was very happy. I don’t want to put the date of his death because I will get emotional,” he admitted.

“I knew I was going to win because I wasn’t nervous,” Lyles said upon arriving in Paris. He wants to win the 100m, 200m and 4x100m to become the first North American to achieve the triplet of speed since Carl Lewis did it 40 years ago and the first in the world since Usain Bolt in Rio 2016. Usain Bolt did the triplet and He did it by breaking world records in every attempt. And what is left of me? If I want to go down in history I have to do things that no one has done, so I will look for four golds in Paris,” said the sprinter, who after achieving the triplet, continued his roadmap with the 4x400m relay, a distance unknown to him, “in my university days I ran a lot of 400m, I know what to do,” he says with confidence. With the Los Angeles 2028 Games around the corner, it’s important for Lyles to be able to show as a national hero in front of his audience and become a very strong commercial stimulus for the athlete himself, for the organization and for NBC – owner of the television rights.