Noah Lyles – the relatable athletics superstar soon to go stratospheric both on and off the track
It's not just the American's athletic prowess, which includes a shirt ripping exaltation when crossing the line first, that will draw attention to the sprinter at Paris 2024, but his characterful personality, too.
The list of names nominated for the 2024 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award, to be announced at a glittering show in Madrid on 22 April, are these:
Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Novak Djokovic, Max Verstappen, Mondo Duplantis and Noah Lyles.
Arguably, the first four are renowned beyond their sports of football, tennis and Formula One, but the latter two, from the world of athletics, maybe not so much.
Not yet anyway.
Duplantis is the current pole vault indoor and outdoor world record holder, the reigning Olympic champion, and two-time World outdoor, and one-time indoor, gold medallist.
But it is Lyles particularly who will likely explode into the consciousness of sports fans the world over, post Paris 2024, should he continue on his current track trajectory.
Already the reigning world champion in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay after a breakout showing at Budapest 2023, the 26-year-old also secured a personal best when he won the 60m at the Boston Indoor Grand Prix in January.
His 6.44 seconds is the fastest time of 2024 thus far, and just 0.1 seconds off compatriot Christian Coleman's world record.
The pair will go head-to-head again at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships taking place in Glasgow 1-3 March, where not only is the indoor title up for grabs – plus a potential new world record – but also the bragging rights ahead of the all-important 2024 outdoor season, too.
Game on.
Noah Lyles' off-track passions
Yet, away from the track, the earnest, characterful American also feels it is vital for athletes to share aspects of their personal lives as one of the ways to create more pizzazz around those that strain every sinew on the field of play.
Lyles leads front and centre in that aspect, too.
From fashion to Anime to social media content creator, Lyles has always shared his interests away from the track, since first turning pro in 2016.
"When you show you have other interests it shows that you’re more relatable," he said in an interview in 2018, ahead of the Birmingham Diamond League. "That’s what I’ve been told and that’s what I’ve learned also through trial and error.
"I have a lot of interests and art is my biggest love. Lego is another one. I have a whole Lego city that I’m building piece by piece and brick by brick and box by box and people actually like it."
He also designed some shoes for a giveaway on social media, which "made me feel really good because I got to express my love outside of track while also sharing my brand and my passion on social media".
When asked if there was anything he couldn't do, Lyles was endearingly open.
"I’m not actually that good at traditional learning," he said. "Or math or writing. I actually have dyslexia, which actually makes things hard for me and people see in my tweets that I spell things wrong."
He uses technology to help with corrections, but is aware of its, and his own, limitations.
"I have an app that is designed to actually help me spell things right, but it might give me a word that… there’s different words so I might end up putting a wrong word so the grammar is off.
"I do have my limits," he said with a smile.
Lyles doesn't do all this extra work to promote just himself for himself, though. He also works hard to put the achievements of all athletes front and centre.
A more recent initiative in 2023, initiated by Lyles, saw athletes arrive for events, such as the Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, fitted out in fashionable clobber.
Lyles, who has himself walked the runway at Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks, arrived at the track wearing what he described as a 'Men in Black outfit'. Compatriot and fellow sprinter Trayvon Bromell rocked up in snakeskin trousers, while Aleia Hobbs wore a white puffer coat and sunglasses.
“If you’re warming up in it, it’s wrong,” said Lyles, who has been taking inspiration from the arrival of NBA and NFL players to meets, believing athletes could and should have the same popularity as their counterparts.
Noah Lyles on walking his own path
Ultimately, however, come the closing ceremony of the XXXIII Olympiad on 11 August, the name Noah Lyles will likely be Olympic famous after fans the world over tuned in to the nearly three-week-long sporting spectacle.
Targeting four Olympic titles – Usain Bolt himself 'only' won three at one Games – Lyles is not only looking to replicate his world treble but potentially add the 4x400m relay into the mix.
And yes, there was always going to be a mention of the great Jamaican, the standard bearer for all sprinters, and Lyles even has the approval of the icon himself.
After a race in Bolt's backyard in Kingston in June last year, the now-retired sprinter was nothing but encouraging to the new protagonist.
"Bolt coming down and giving me his respects and me giving him my respects, it was kind of like, 'Wow',' recalls Lyles. 'He said, 'Just keep doing what you are doing'."
But don't anyone be mistaken that Noah Lyles thinks he's the new Usain Bolt.
Says the man himself: "I am the new Noah Lyles."