Even though Noah Lyles is the fastest man in the world, he was unable to clinch the gold medal in his best event at the Olympics. The 27-year-old sprinter collapsed to the ground after finishing third in the 200-meter event and later revealed that he was sick.
However, you would not have known Lyles was not at 100% before the race.
He came out of the tunnel for his introduction in grandiose fashion. It was a boisterous entrance that sent the crowd into a frenzy with a smattering of boos.
He didn’t win, but chills seeing Noah Lyles come out of the tunnel for the 200M. Wow. #Athletics #Olympics pic.twitter.com/631J48qBeG
— Jake Marsh (@PMTsportsbiz) August 8, 2024
Lyles’ pre-race antics drew a lot of criticism from fans. Why would he run onto the track and jump around in such a energy-draining and arrogant manner if he was not feeling well? It’s a fair question.
To come out of the tunnel like he did before a disappointing loss wasn’t a great look…
The haters jumped all over Lyles. Even first-place finisher Letslie Tebogo threw shade in his direction after his victory.
If you really think about it, for Noah Lyles to finish third in the world in the 200M while dealing with a respiratory illness as someone who dealt with debilitating asthma as a child is insanely impressive. But the optics of his introduction were not great after he fell to the ground gasping for air and needed a wheelchair to exit the stadium.
Lyles doesn’t care what people think because “there’s always going to be critics” but offered a defense of his entrance anyway. He needed to hype himself up to run the race in the same exact way he would hype himself up for any other race when he was/is healthy. It needed to be consistent.
If I didn’t do that, I would not have been able to encourage myself to get excited to run the race. I had to go in, tricking my mind and my body that I was going to run just as well as any other day as I was going to run on that day. But that’s stuff that only a champion would know.
— Noah Lyles
Unfortunately, Lyles didn’t have enough in the tank to defend his title in the 200. The American sprinter left France with a bronze medal in his best event and a gold medal in the 100. It was still impressive, but it was a bummer.