Noah Lyles gets PAID. Adidas extends contract through 2029 & says it's the richest contract since Usain Bolt

1) Private does not mean unknown. Industry insiders know how much everyone is making.

2) Yes, because he makes Adidas and the media the most money in the sport.

3) None.

Weird. Just the other week your website had a poster saying that he is driving away fans because he “isn’t black enough”.

Yeah, wild. Sometimes he's maybe a bit cringe, but tbqh, you're allowed to do whatever TF you want when you're winning like him. I like to watch him go crazy though, it's fun.

If they paid me his salary, I'd probably S my own D on live TV, or at least try to.

He’s probably making what NFL role players make

He's marginally outsprinting the competition during a weak era in the sport. He's done nothing to advance the sport except beefing it up a bit with the NBA. That was good, but I put value on results.

Can't walk around like Vince McMahon when you don't have a WR to your name.

9.5 - no

9.6 - no

9.7 - no

9.8 - yes

There's a performance gap here that doesn't justify world record contracts.

No one currently should make more money, but the odds of someone coming up the ranks the next couple years is pretty high, it's rare for sprinters to dominate multiple years in a row. Let's say he's making $2M each year. What if you gave 20 of the top 18/19 year-olds in the world $100k each. The odds one of them winning by 2028 is probably pretty high, yet they're currently unproven and would gladly take $100k for the next 4 years. And that way you wouldn't be paying it all to one person, you'd have a lot of fast runners for the same price, including the potential champ in a few years.

Also, I wonder what Knighton is making and how long his contract is. He seems like the obvious next guy winning at the global level, could even happen this year if he just gets a little faster and if Noah stagnates. Although Noah's indoor 60 PR shows he could be on a new level.

Also, he is going to run a good 200m time this year. Bank on it.

After signing the contract, Lyles probably told Adidas "I appreciate ya."

3) Femke Bol, Jakob Ingebristen

Someone who is popular world-wide, especially in the Euro market, races often, and is entrusiastic about racing

Ik Track contract details aren’t exposed to the public but anybody know how much Bolt was making when he was active? 10 mill annually?

His net worth is $90 mil and he seems like a big spender so probably in that ballpark. Likely a lot more in total with all his other sponsorships.

I’m guessing Mondo makes more?

I'd pay the following US athlete more, way more.

Sha'Carri. She already moves the needle way more than Lyles with the US public. And if she wins Olympic gold, after being forbidden from running in 2021, she's basically the number one female athlete in America.

I also think Eliud Kipchoge deserves way more. He's the modern Bannister and his 1:59:40 have objectively made super shoes a REAL big thing.

There's a lot of athletes better than Lyles - ETH, SAFP, - but they aren't American. Crouser is a field eventer so no.

Warholm and Jakob also obviously deserve more but they aren't American.

Adidas doesn't care about World Records, they care about how much money athletes are bringing in for them.

What part of "do you think" in rojo's question was hard to understand?

1) I don't know. I'm guessing they don't know for sure, but saying its the largest since Bolt is good PR even if it's just on the basis of not knowing any other contract that was greater.

2) I'd think Lyles should be the highest paid on an annual basis right now. Most marketable athlete in the most marketable event.

3) If I were a sponsor, I'd be more comfortable giving a higher total value contract over multiple years to Mondo. Lyles might fall of the map after a year, while I think it's a whole lot more likely that Mondo will still be the best in the world and still the world record holder in five years. He has to have by far the highest odds of winning a gold in 2028. Who else would even be close?

1) Whilst athletes may be bound to a non-disclosure, word travels round, especially between execs, I'm sure they know the ballpark of all the top people's contracts.
2) No, he does a 10x better job at marketing the sport than most athletes who have set WRs or won Olympic gold. Performance is just one aspect of the equation, and what Lyles lacks there (which honestly is not much as he's still top echelon) he makes up for in personality, like it or not.

3) Another answer people won't like: Sha'Carri Richardson is currently the only athlete that commands a figure close to what Lyles has inked, if we are thinking in terms of business.

The notion that this is a weak era is a great exaggeration in my opinion. Bolt's era simply spoiled us: he made others around him better. Regardless, there are active sprinters in the top 10 all time right now (Coleman, Bromell, Omanyala, Kerley) and the Tokyo Olympics' winning time was one of the fastest winning times for an Olympics. 9.8 really is not slow, Bolt just made us think it is

I'll find out shortly, but I'm hedging close to $8m/year base with incentives to get to $10m each year.