Noah Lyles' high-performance physiotherapist Dr Jo Brown on her role in the team training an emerging sporting icon

There cannot be any lesson in sporting greatness better than observing Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at close quarters for a few days. Working as a physio at the Australian Open, Jo Brown became fascinated with analysing what made these two iconic tennis stars different from the rest.

"I looked at the likes of Federer and Nadal and everyone else in the top 100 and I was like, 'What's the difference between Federer and Nadal and the rest?'," recalled the now high-performance physiotherapist and performance coach when speaking to Olympics.com in an exclusive interview in September 2023. 

"At this point, there was no one else coming through and these were the two guys, and I was like, 'What makes them legends versus a one-off champion?'

"I just studied them for the three to five days that I was in their (changing) room with them, and I quickly realised it wasn't anything physical; they're amazing, talented players, but so is everyone else in the top 100 – it's how they execute that talent, how they utilise that talent," enthuses Brown, even now.

"They just have absolute clarity about everything they do in every moment and every interaction, it's every glance of an eye to acknowledge someone," says the New Zealander, who cites the seemingly minor detail of the pair remembering her name as leaving an impression. "They go out of their way to include people, make people feel special and it's a special gift."

Her most high-profile current charge – both on and off the track – super sprinter Noah Lyles, is of the same ilk, Brown says of the man who is on schedule to light up the Stade de France at the Paris 2024 Games in less than a year's time.

The triple world champion in the men's 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, as of August's Budapest meet, is the athlete touted as the one most likely to break the once seemingly impossible task of Usain Bolt's 200m world record of 19.19 seconds, secured at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.

The 26-year-old also has eyes on the rare 100m/200m Olympic double, only ever achieved by nine athletes in the men's Olympic sprint races with that man Bolt doing it an incredible three times.

So how do you support an athlete when the goal is to improve on a sporting icon's 'unbeatable' records? Brown talked to Olympics.com about her role in Lyles' plan for greatness.

Joining Noah Lyles' dream team

Only the fifth man in World Championship history to ever win the 100m-200m double, the characterful Lyles is reaping the rewards of an 18-month association with Brown.

Already a tight team around him including his mum, Keisha Caine Bishop, coach Lance Baumann, a psychologist and personal chef, Lyles felt something was missing, telling Track & Field News in March: "We started adding more people that we felt we were missing out on. A sports physio is our newest addition to the team. Her name is Jo Brown and she has been able to fill the gaps of physiotherapy that I haven’t been able to get 24/7. So, where I’ve kind of only done it to stay away from injuries, now I’m doing it to strengthen my weaknesses."

Brown's academic qualifications include a PhD and study of biomechanics and lived experience such as starting as a student with Tonga's rugby team to working with the likes of Jamaica's bobsledders and sprinters, Swimming Australia, the US ski team, and NBA players.

The fire lit for Brown's niche after watching Fedal: "I was like, 'Wow, I need to figure out more about this whole purpose and intent and how the mind plays into performance'.

"I did some coaching and some sports psychology papers, so I could really get a better view of what performance is, and now I have this capacity to kind of sit above performance and look down at all the different pieces of the performance puzzle or the performance pie, and I can see it quite differently because I have the different skill sets."

Lyles quickly recognised that adding Brown to his team would help him progress to the next level after the Kiwi was invited to a US training camp to offer additional support for two weeks. Brown was quick to grasp her opportunity when asked by Lyles to check out a niggling groin soreness.

"He's a high performer, he's a one percenter and I had one chance to be good at what I do but acknowledge that I'm good at what I do," says Brown. "And he said to me after two minutes, 'Wow, you're really good at what you do. You really know your stuff.' And I'm like, 'Yes, yes, I do. I'm one of the best in the world at what I do.'"

'Let's talk,' said Lyles.

Noah Lyles' – fastest man on the planet

The initial interaction was for Brown to help with injury prevention so Lyles could achieve his lofty goals. The relationship then evolved as Brown began to see gaps in Lyles' performance – those minute details which preoccupied Federer and Nadal – that could improve Lyles' performance, even incrementally.

"Because of the type of athlete Noah is, as soon as I said, 'Hey, I've noticed this, you know, your left calf is really weak, we need to do something about that, he's like, 'Oh really? What do we need to do to fix it?

"And then we just got on this journey of looking at all the little things that we could improve in his body and his coordination, how he applies force to the track and his activation patterns, what he feels when he's on the track to then go for that world record, and the beautiful thing for me is Noah is such a responsive athlete.

"He's so clever and he listens, he learns and then he can execute. It's just like boom, boom, boom, and... at the time, I'd never really seen someone respond that quickly to instruction and cues and he's a pleasure to work with."

Working as part of the whole, Brown also needed to fit with the current team Lyles, including coach Lance Baumann.

"A lot of people would say to me, 'Oh, how do you get on with Lance?', because he's a tough coach and he's a man's man. We have this amazing, I'd say, mutual respect for each other and what we do, and we work really well together.

"He and I have been with Noah on the track, communicating about what I'm seeing, what he's seeing. He'll say, 'Hey Jo, what do you see in terms of biomechanics, and how his body is working? And can we get better angles? Can we get better force into the track, all those kinds of things. So, it's an absolute joy for me to be in that environment. I get to be the best of me helping Noah be the best of him, which is the fastest man on the planet."

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Working with Noah Lyles' love of showmanship

Not only is Lyles looking to break iconic track records, but his playful, engaging personality is a boon for the sport he loves, and which he does his best to promote. Currently being followed by a Netflix crew for a documentary in the style of the uber-successful Formula One series Drive to Survive, and Grand-Slam tennis-following Break Point, the series is following Lyles' journey toward Paris 2024.

Brown knows showmanship is an important aspect of Lyles' personality – both on and off the track – and brings the Florida-born athlete joy, and she works within that parameter.

Bolt-esque celebrations and shenanigans pre- and post-race, divisive but playful press conference comments such as NBA-gate, a YouTube channel, social media platforms, fashion interests – Lyles even has his own stylist – all are part of Lyles' engaging package but even here, the marginal gains are sought.

"I know it's all part of it and I'm as much passionate about Noah for elevating what track and field should be – it's the basis of all sport – it's where sport started. To me, it's where the Olympics started.

"I really love the way that he is so passionate about elevating track and field in terms of a sport that's recognised globally, and they should be superstars – he's the fastest man on the planet right now, he should be considered a superstar, and as much as I want him to get back to the (physio) table and get back to me and make sure he's okay (after a race), I also want him to use his presence in the sport to elevate the sport.

"There's an element where there have been a few times where I think that... he's a little bit fatigued or tired because he has been doing so much media stuff and it's just finding that balance, but at the same time he feeds off it so well, so, you don't really want to take it away from him."

The moment the hard work starts to pay off

One of Brown's favourite moments in her career is seemingly low-key compared to some of her experiences, but it's one she cites when asked the question.

"So we were in Boston," says Brown of the Indoor Grand Prix in February, in which Lyles was running his unfavoured 60m, "and we've been working on a start and all these things and it was -34, the whole weekend was crazy cold, and my dog had actually passed away in the middle of the night. We had to put my dog down. He was my fur baby.

"And so it was a pretty tough weekend for me, but my husband was so supportive and he's like, 'You know what, babe, you just need to be there for the guys, they need you. You've got to bring your A-game.

"And so I'd had no sleep and we went into this race in Boston... and we turned up to the track and Noah's groin was a bit sore. Sometimes athletes just have something that's niggling and quite often when they come to me and something's niggling, I'm like, 'They're on, they're actually going to run amazing'. And I had this feeling that Noah was going to run amazing even though he's worried about the groin. And we got it to a point that I could prove to him that he was fine and that he could run and the coach was like, can he run?

"I'm like, yeah, he's fine. We've tested it. It's fine. It's just a little niggle and it settled down. And he's warming up and he does the heat, does okay, comes back, we do a little bit more work on the groin and then he is preparing for the final and I look across the track for the coach on the other side and we just did the, 'Yeah, he's good'.

"Beforehand, I can't remember what he said, but it was something kind of off the cuff like I better go alright otherwise, you know, something about, you've got to earn your place kind of thing, in a joke, you know. And I was like, just shut up and go and run.

"And then, he comes back and he does a PB in the 60 (of 6.51s) which he hadn't done in a really, really long time and he comes out and is looking for all his people, and the YouTube guys were there and I remember they just kind of stepped out the way and he just comes around and gives me a hug. And I was like, so do I get to keep my job now?

"He never swears, but he's like, 'F*** yeah', and he kind of gave me this hug like he was going to break me in two.

"It was just this, 'We've got this, we're going to do great things together', kind of thing. It was just special, like it wasn't just a hug, it was a moment that we both knew that we were going to do some awesome things and what this meant."

Brown pauses.

"I think people don't realise the sacrifices athletes make these days and the time on the road and not being able to do things like we all do – like everyone in their high-performance world, all make sacrifices – time away from home, routine, food, sleeping in your own bed, all those kind of things. I've had more time this year in hotel beds than I have in my own bed, but we're on a mission, there's things to do.

"We're going to get that record."

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