Paris, 2024
Noah Lyles appeared exhausted almost immediately after crossing the finish line in the 200-meter dash on Thursday night. After placing third in a race he had dominated for the previous three years, he laid on his back on the purple track at Stade de France, gasping for air.
After winning the gold medal in one of the most exciting sprint finishes at the Olympics, Lyles took home the bronze in the 200 and remarked, in retrospect, that it was a fantastic accomplishment. It was less than 36 hours after Lyles won the 100 in a picture finish, a remarkable start to an Olympic campaign he anticipated would place him as the next great American track and field star, that he found out about 5 a.m. Paris time on Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
But on Tuesday, Lyles left the athletes’ village to enter quarantine at a neighbouring hotel after waking up with chills, pains, and a sore throat—symptoms he had previously encountered during exposures. He declared that he was taking the antiviral medication Paxlovid and that he had never thought about withdrawing from the competition or disclosing his health status before the 200 final. It is not necessary for athletes to report cases of COVID-19 or to test.
Lyles, sporting an N-95 mask, told reporters approximately 45 minutes after finishing in 19.70 seconds, behind Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (19.46), who won his nation’s first-ever Olympic gold medal, and American Kenneth Bednarek (19.62). “We didn’t want everybody to go into a panic, we wanted them to be able to compete,” Lyles said. “And you never want to tell your competitors you’re sick,” Lyles continued. Why would you offer them the upper hand?
The Olympics in Paris will be the first to take place without the pandemic-era bubbles that surrounded the 2021 and 2022 Beijing and Tokyo games. Every four days, athletes in Tokyo underwent testing. They were put to the test every day in Beijing. Athletes were placed in isolation after testing positive. The majority had to withdraw from the Games completely.
It is the responsibility of national governing organisations to develop their own Covid protocols.Many have resorted to something that resembles common sense, and few have particular policies in place. A positive test result hasn’t prevented athletes from participating.
When Australian swimmer Zac Stubblety-Cook won silver in the 200 backstroke, he tested positive for COVID-19. Day after day, British swimmer Adam Peaty, who had won silver in the 100 breaststroke, revealed he had Covid. Another Australian swimmer, Lani Pallister, chose to compete two days after testing positive for COVID-19; she was a member of the gold-winning 4×200 relay team.
For Lyles, who also has asthma, the first clue that he was not at full strength emerged on Wednesday, when Tebogo raced past him in a semifinal heat; Lyles had won the last two world titles in the 200 — and had not lost in the event since 2021 — and so it seemed it was likely that he was lagging on purpose, conserving energy before Thursday’s final and the upcoming 4×100 relays.
When Lyles was introduced on Thursday night, he darted out of the tunnel, spinning and shouting and pointing to the crowd. The crowd chanted “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” until they were shushed over the arena loudspeakers.
At the gun, Lyles got off the blocks slower than the seven other finalists. But unlike Sunday, when he trailed for the first 90 meters before edging Kishane Thompson of Jamaica at the end, Lyles lacked endurance and speed, particularly around the bend.
Afterward, Lyles sat near the track, breathing heavily. He got up slowly and called for water, after which medical officials led him to a seat and spoke to him.
“Our primary commitment is to ensure the safety of Team U.S.A. athletes while upholding their right to compete,” U.S.A. Track and Field, the sport’s national governing body, said in a statement on Thursday night. “We respect his decision and will continue to monitor his condition closely.”
After faltering at the Tokyo Games, where he ended with a bronze medal in the 200 and disclosed his difficulties with mental health, Lyles came into these Olympics determined to regain his position as the top competitor. Speaking through tears to the lone person in the stadium—reporters—he referred to his award as “boring.”
Lyles, 27, views motorsports as a kind of performance art. He enjoys racing and winning even more when it’s in front of a packed stadium; the bigger, rowdier, and more competitive the audience, the better.
In addition to showing anime cards to the camera both before and after races and ripping his speedsuit in celebration after winning world championships, he has become a well-known figure on his Peacock series, YouTube channel, and Netflix docuseries “Sprint.”
He delivered the kind of performance he had long claimed, winning the 100, 200 and 4×100 metre relay in the 2023 world championships in Budapest. He was excited to aim for the trifecta in Paris as well, and maybe supplement it with a gold medal in the 4×400.
Rather, Lyles’s remaining program is uncertain. Unlike Usain Bolt, Carl Lewis, or Jesse Owens, he did not win the sprint double, and it was unclear on Thursday if he would participate in any relay events.
