Paris 2024 Olympics: Noah Lyles stars in his own Hollywood script as Olympic champion — "it feels good to back it up"
Welcome to The Noah Lyles Show, everyone.
Glad you could tune in.
The American sprint star who has launched a personal campaign over the last few years to raise the profile of global athletics just exploded on its biggest stage: The Olympic Games as 100-metre champion at Paris 2024.
But it's not an act.
Lyles, ever the showman, outspoken, electrifying and unafraid to set expectations sky-high for himself, soared when it mattered most, running his fastest-ever 100m race to clip Jamaica's Kishane Thompson at the line by five thousandths of a second.
If you think this was the Hollywood ending that the 27-year-old from Gainesville, Florida, has long dreamed of, you'd only be partly right. He set out the goal of winning not one, not two, not three but four gold medals at these Games.
And, he says, the 100m isn't even his best event.
"It feels good to back it up," Lyles said of his on-track performance aligning with his big-talking ways after his victory.
What does he want next?
"I want my own shoe," he said. "I want my own trainer — I'm dead serious. There ain't no money in spikes, it's in sneakers. And even Michael Johnson didn't have his own sneaker. I feel like for how many medals we bring back, for the notoriety we get … the fact that that hasn't happened, that's crazy to me. I was like, 'Yeah, that needs to happen.' "
Fashion-forward Noah Lyles has a new accessory: Olympic gold
It's a plot line that has been unfolding for the better part of five years, when Lyles became the world champion in the 200m at the World Athletics Championships in 2019, but was then interrupted by the global pandemic — and a bronze medal he said that stung at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.
He carried that bronze to Paris 2024 as a reminder: He has long seen himself as the main character, not a supporting one.
"I was fueled as soon as I saw this in my hands," Lyles said of the bronze medal, holding it up for reporters to see. "That's when I was fueled."
But that didn't slow Lyles from chasing passions outside of the sport — and weaving them into his persona on it. Earlier this summer, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Lyles made a habit of making an entrance to the venue dressed for a fashionable night out. He even convinced rapper Snoop Dogg to join him for a walk into the venue.
Long have his interests been eclectic: Anime superfan; recording artist; fashion-forward. Lyles began painting his nails and wearing themed necklaces to match his hair.
This is a 21st century sort of Olympic champion. Talk the talk and then walk the walk.
"I took on a lot of sponsors to try and get my name out there, and unfortunately, it didn't work out for me," Lyles recalled of his last Olympics. "I've seen tons of scenarios where athletes come in as a favorite and it doesn't work out for them. Knowing that that could happen continued to fuel me.
"Just, you know, constantly going that extra step, knowing that at any time, you know, somebody can pop up [to beat me]."
But Lyles now has the greatest accessory any Olympic athlete could ask for: A new necklace.
With a gold medal around it.
"When we started the season, a lot of people were saying, 'Ooh, it's going to be a slow year in the 100m,' " he quipped wryly. "Well, it wasn't no slow year in the hundred."