Noah Lyles isn’t the fastest sprinter off the block. Three of his competitors set off faster than him, and yet he came from behind to win the 100 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. (Watch on YouTube) And he won not only the 100 metres but more, repeating a feat only achieved before by the great Usain Bolt.
The American Lyles won only the 200-metre bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, but at 26, he is a six-time world champion. He won the 200 metres and 4 × 100 metres at the 2019 World Championships, the 200 metres at the 2022 World Championships, and the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100-metre events at the 2023 World Championships, becoming the first man since Usain Bolt in 2015 to complete the sprint treble at a World Championships.
And now he wants to go one-up on Bolt. He wants to win four gold medals at Paris 2024 – a feat that eluded even Bolt.
The Olympic great Bolt landed a sprint triple at London 2012 and Rio 2016, but not more.
Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen won four golds in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 80-metre hurdles and 4×100 metres in London in 1948, but she is a glorious exception.
Now, Lyles wants to be the first man to do so.
“Why four?” Lyles told The Times. “Well, there have been multiple doubles, not a lot, but there have been plenty.
“I can grab three, but Bolt has done that. I can do two Olympics in a row, but Bolt has done that too.”
He is chasing greatness.
“What’s left on the table that could put me on my Mount Rushmore, make people say, ‘Not only was he great, but he did something that hasn’t been done’?
He wants to participate in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4×100-metre relays as well as the 4×400-metre relay. He participated in the latter at the world indoor championships in Glasgow on March 3 this year, helping the US win silver in the relay.
However, that did not go down too well.
“A lot of people in the US were very, very, very upset that I ran the 4×4,” Lyles said.
But what does Bolt think of Lyles wanting to outdo him?
What Bolt says
Bolt hugged Lyles when they met after Lyles won the 200 metres at the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, Jamaica, in June last year.
Bolt embraced the American and said to him, “Keep your same attitude. The sport needs that … We need personality.”
In a podcast, track and field site, Citius Mag asked Bolt to comment on young track stars like Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo and Erriyon Knighton.
Bolt said: “ I think the guys are really doing well. It’s really intense, I must say. It’s not going to be easy. I feel like Noah feels like it’s easy running both events. It was never easy. I’ve said it and I’ve always said that it’s not easy running back-to-back events and then going out to break the world record because your body runs out of energy. I think the possibility is there because he came close at the (2022) World Championships. I think if he corrects a few things, I won’t say, he could get better. The possibility is there.”
Citius asked: “You won’t say?”
Bolt laughed and replied: “I won’t tell you how to break the world record.”