PARIS – Noah Lyles didn’t hesitate when asked what inspired his decisive victory in the Olympic 100 meters final on Sunday night.
The newly minted fastest man in the world rummaged through a large bag and showed off the Tokyo bronze medal he packed before heading to Paris last month.
“I was so pumped when I saw this in my hands,” Lyles said.
For Lyles, the award isn’t a prize he’s earned but a marker of the lowest moments of his playing career and forgettable. He brought it to the Stade de France a few days ago because the sight of it inspires him immediately.
Lyles won his first Olympic gold medal in his sport on Sunday night, coming from behind to beat Kishane Thompson of Jamaica by five thousandths of a second. He is the first American to win the first place in the men’s 100 since Justin Gatlin did it 20 years ago.
That could be the start of a turnaround week for Lyles in Paris if all goes according to plan. He is heavily favored to win gold in the 200 this weekend and is the clear choice to run the anchor leg of the men’s 4×100-meter relay. The way Lyles sees it, he can even talk about how he ran the leg of the 4×400 meter relay and gave himself a chance to win a rare fourth gold medal at the Olympics.
The beginning of all that success came three years ago. Lyles doesn’t get gold in Paris if he doesn’t settle for bronze in Tokyo.
During the preparations for the Tokyo Olympics, Lyles was not in a good headspace. The stress he dealt with when he was abused as a child has returned, fueled by the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the killing of George Floyd and uncertainty over whether the Tokyo Olympics When will the postponements take place?
Lyles only qualified for the Tokyo Olympics at 200, not 100. Arriving at empty stadiums, strict COVID protocols and little support from family or friends, his mental health it got worse.
Standing on the starting line before the men’s 200 medley final, he remembers thinking, “This is not fun. This is not it. ”
Lyles, then 24 and already the world’s top 200-meter runner, finished third in the 200 that day, only his second loss of work in that area as a professional. He was unable to take a small lead as he rounded the corner and let Canadian Andre De Grasse and fellow American Kenny Bednarek pass him.
Speaking to reporters that night, Lyles called his bronze medal “boring.” She cried as she talked about her mental health issues, about the antidepressants making her gain weight, about coming off the drug to prepare for the Olympic trials.
Lyles went home saying to himself, “I have to change. I have to change.” He says that committing to treatment is what made the biggest difference for him. Therapy helped him overcome his debilitating fear of returning to the arena and turn the disappointment of Tokyo into fuel for future success.
While he used to feel pressured to live up to other people’s expectations of him or anxious before a big race, he now says he tries to put it as if he “looked extreme what will happen.”
“That’s how my doctor and I describe it,” he said with a smile. “I’m curious what I’m going to do. How am I going to get rid of it?”
The opportunity Lyles wanted to see didn’t take years or months. It took weeks. Just a month after the Tokyo Olympics, Lyles ran a world first in the 200 at the Prefontaine Classic. He followed that up in 2022 by surpassing Michael Johnson’s American record in the 200 and last year by pulling off a rare World Championships streak last year.
Everything Lyles has achieved can be traced back to the last three years.
“I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m doing enough,'” Lyles said earlier this summer. “Then I turn around and look at the award – ‘Okay, back to work.’
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