Noah Lyles’ mouth wrote the check. On the Olympic podium, his feet cashed it
SAINT-DENIS, France — Noah Lyles again had a rough start. His reaction time was the worst in the eight-man field. Slow starts cost him in the first round, and then again in the semifinals.
It felt like a recipe for disaster with this incredible field, one of the most loaded in Olympic history. Jamaicans Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville were clocking insane times. American Fred Kerley was on a roll. Even reigning Olympic champion Lamont Marcel Jacobs of Italy was in good form.
It felt like a disaster to see Lyles in fifth place, after 20 meters.
“It just goes to show,” Lyles said, “that races aren’t won with a start.”
But a bad start may have been fortunate. For all his braggadocio, Lyles is at his core a competitor of the utmost importance. He may come across as arrogant and showy, a recipe that usually contains only a teaspoon of substance. But Lyles is a dawg in the strictest sense of the word. His heart is at least as big as his mouth.
It was unveiled on Sunday evening during the Olympic final of the 100 meters for eternity.
Lyles, trailing world-class burners and coming off a series of defeats, had to put his best foot forward. The slow start triggered his greatest asset. Lyles’ refusal to lose turned this charged finale into a historic one.
It’s the fastest time he’s ever run: 9.79 seconds. Technically, it was 9.784. He’s America’s first gold medalist in the 100 meters in 20 years. After winning the 2023 world championships and now an Olympic title in 2024, he’s the undisputed fastest man alive.
Thompson took silver with a 9.789. American Fred Kerley, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics, added bronze to his resume with a personal best of 9.81. Five of the six best times were personal bests, season bests or national records. Seville ran a 9.91 and finished last. Just a ridiculous octet of sprinters.
But Lyles said the moment is never too big for him, but made for him. They don’t get any bigger than what happened Sunday at the Stade de France. On the biggest stage of his life, with the whole world there, in a venue that gave goosebumps, Lyles made the moment his own.
His mouth wrote the check. His feet cashed it.
“I want my own shoe,” said Lyles, a longtime Adidas endorser. “I want my own trainer. … I want a sneaker. The money is not in spikes. The money is in sneakers.”
The photo finish at the end. (Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images)
Lyles’ braggadocio is not empty. His calculated theatricality and hunger for attention may make him less reverential. His arrogance makes some people turn against him.
But what he did, you can’t do if you don’t have a heart.
Phase one of Lyles’ grand plan for immortality is complete. With the 100 meters in the bag, he now begins the 200 meters on Monday.
Carl Lewis was the last American to do what Lyles tried to do: win gold in the 100 and 200 meters at the same Olympics. Lewis did it in 1984 in Los Angeles. Michael Johnson was the last American to do a sprint double. He won the 200 and 400 meters in 1996 in Atlanta.
The hardest thing for Lyles was winning gold in the 100 meters. The 200 is his main event. He is the best in the world in this event, and has been for the entire Olympic cycle.
“Pretty confident. I can’t lie,” Lyles said. “Kenny ran a fast time at the trials. That really woke me up. I was really proud of him. He’s not going to let it go in the 100 meters. He’s going to say, ‘I’m going to go for it in the 200 meters.’ It’s my job to make sure that…”
Lyles paused. Then his smile flashed.
“I’ll just leave it at that.”
Kerley, who had been largely silent throughout the press conference and was clearly present out of a sense of duty, suddenly woke up and joined the conversation.
“Talk about that s—,” Kerley told Lyles.
“That guy ain’t winning,” Lyles obliged. “None of them win. When I come off the turn, they’re going to be depressed.”
What always takes precedence in the realm of chatter is supporting it. Hubris is easier to digest when it is justified.
The best chance to silence Lyles came in the 100 meters. Lyles finished seventh in the 100-meter final at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Qualifiers, but failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games in the 100 meters.
SEVENTH.
He teamed up with coach Lance Brauman to develop him into an elite short-distance sprinter.
NOAH LYLES IS THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE 🇺🇸
Lyles defeated Kishane Thompson by four thousandths of a second to win gold by a hair’s breadth.
He is the first American to win the event in 20 years.
🎥 @NBCOlympics photo.twitter.com/sKMer9mPOh
— The Athletics (@TheAthletic) August 4, 2024
That’s the overlooked part of all this. What Lyles has done to become a world-class sprinter in the most important discipline is a testament to his immense talent and drive. He entered a new realm that had his great talents and decided to take them on.
He did it loudly, with a certainty that the incumbents despised. Three years later, he sits alone on the throne vacated by Usain Bolt. He talked about doing it. He predicted he would do it. Then he did it. The kid from the DC area pulled a Marlo trick and took over another area.
That’s why Lyles jumped and screamed when he walked through the mixed zone and saw Brauman. He had one more run left in him tonight, through the maze of ropes, around a barrier and into the room full of media. So he could celebrate with the coach who had helped him make it happen.
The Netflix cameras capture it all for Season 2 of the docuseries “Sprint.”
At first, Lyles thought he hadn’t won. It looked like Thompson had beaten him. Lyles said he was ready to swallow his pride and take the loss against a worthy opponent.
Immediately after the race, which was so close that technology was needed to determine it, Lyles went to Thompson and told him, “I think you’ve got a big dog.”
In his first two races of this Olympics, Lyles could not recover from a slow start. In the first heat of the 100 meters on Saturday, he fell behind and could not catch Britain’s Louie Hinchliffe. He said he underestimated the field, which he would not do again.
Saturday, in the semi-final, he shared a heat with Seville. This was not just any heat. These two have history.
Oblique Seville may sound like an old-school Cadillac, but he’s no slouch. And after finishing fourth to Lyles at the 2023 World Cup, the 23-year-old Jamaican has gone from strength to strength.
He defeated Lyles in June at the Racers Grand Prix in Jamaica. Not only did Seville run a 9.82, but he also outpaced Lyles.
Lyles of course, replied to X: “I’ll remember this. See you in Paris.”
On Sunday they stood next to each other in the semi-final.
Seville had a much better start and looked to be comfortably ahead. But Lyles — after his first-lap hiccup and his rivalry with the Jamaicans — recovered much better. This time Lyles chased the leader. He looked ready for a fight.
A composite image of the men’s 100m. (Photo: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
He ran a 9.83 despite a slow start, but still failed to catch Seville, who ran a personal best of 9.81.
So when Lyles did it a third time, slowly coming out of the blocks, the packed crowd had every reason to believe he would lose. About 20 yards out, he was no better than fifth.
But Lyles has talked a lot about transcending the sport, taking the track to a new level. He’s talked about wanting more energetic competition with his cohorts. More trash talk. More racing. More of the best competing against each other. That’s essentially what he wanted.
He would have to fight for this. So Lyles shifted into a higher gear. The gear that the greats have. He didn’t make this race about technique. Or pure form. Or the most talent. It was about willpower. It was about the age-old tradition of running as a measure of a man.
He caught the leaders. They pushed him. He pushed them. Finally there was a finish, a moment, that will be remembered for generations.
When the results were in, even Lyles was stunned.
“Everyone in the field came out knowing they could win this race. I wasn’t doing this against a slow field. I was doing this against the best of the best, on the biggest stage, with the most pressure. And when I saw my name, I thought, ‘Oh my god! There it is!’”
The difference turned out to be a perfectly timed lean from Lyles. His chest crossed the finish line .005 seconds ahead of Thompson. Lyles won thanks to his heart.
Required reading
(Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
