Noah Lyles: When the most unlikeable athlete becomes the face of your sport

Agree

Agree he's unlikeable but not sure why people have a problem with the covid thing.

Covid will affect your performances the same as any flu or mild illness that affects the respiratory system will. But it's not serious enough to stop a young healthy person going out and having a good time. Maybe it might keep an 85 year old in bed...

I'm sorry that Matthew Bowling's career didn't pan out like you hoped it would.

All I’m saying is that if Lyles is wins that 200m, he’s not getting carted off in a wheelchair. It was clearly for show. He was bouncing off the walls before the race, jumping everywhere. It’s a bad look. Maybe he was sick. Maybe it was the Jakob syndrome of only happening to be sick AFTER you lose.

He acts like a little immature child.

No one can self proclaim themselves the face of track & field. He tried playing the long game and would have come out smelling better if he'd not been so vocal. Unfortunately he has to deal with an Olympics that many will say he 'lost' even after winning the 100.

My only issue with the whole thing is that he went out partying when he was still infectious, that’s just rude.

I caught it a month ago and it had a major effect on my endurance. It is not surprising to me that he was able to compete and it knocked down his performance in an 200 about as much as it did. How he looked after is exactly how I would have looked for a short period after running a 200 with summer 2024 Covid.

Even if it is just like a moderate cold at this point for most in terms of major consequences, it’s inconsiderate to excessively be around others when you are probably infectious. Do you what you have to do but then go watch Netflix in your room.

He tries a bit too hard. With Bolt, you just got the feeling that Bolt was just being himself and doing what he would be doing even if he wasn't a track and field star.

The hair, the nail polish, the clothes all seems a bit contrived to me, since it wasn't something he was doing before he became "the face" of the sport.

I prefer Kishane Thompson, Letsile Tebogo. But that's just me.

Rojo literally posted here that they'd heard he was sick 2 days before the 200m.

50% of people on here can be told the truth and will deny it as hard as they can

How closely did you follow the meet? On the Aug 7 evening session live discussion thread, several of us noticed that he was wearing a face mask before his 200 semifinal, and he did not seem like himself. That same day, it was reported here that he went to the medical tent right after finishing his semifinal. This all happened the day *before* the 200 final.

As for the party, he tweeted a photo of the negative result of the covid test he took before going out.

I believe he was coughing up and feeling bad on Monday night and that prompted him to get tested and got a positive COVID result Tuesday morning.

In the 200m Final Thursday night, he was trying to pump himself up and psychologically put it out of his mind before the race. Similar to when a sick Jakob pumped up the crowd in Budapest in the Semis perhaps?

He shared a negative test on Saturday afternoon, and then partied on Saturday night. Definitely you can be skeptical about the authenticity of that negative test. That being said, people are having pretty short-lived cases nowadays. If he was already feeling better 90-95% by Thursday as he stated, for a guy with Asthma it's not crazy he'd be in trouble post-race and then be doing much better after resting the following 48 hours.

The guy is a chump.

He got Tebogo'd

Seriously, f this guy. I can't stand his showboating, it's just cringy and forced. Bolt not only had a natural charisma, he walked the walk and dominated his events.

As a long-time track fan, I'm glad that this clown didn't make the triple, heck, even a double, so he won't keep getting shoved into my face everytime I read something track related. I can only imagine what would've happened if he got all 4 golds he wanted.... in fact, I don't want to imagine it.

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This site has a lot of negative neds.

Lyles is trying to promote the sports and draw more attention to the sport. He is a little goofy. Not a big deal to me.

He is a talented sprinter. He talked a lot and won the 100 and 200 and 4 x 100 at the 2023 world championships. No reason to think he couldn't do it at the Olympics even if it would be more difficult.

The sport needs people like Lyles - even if you don't like him.

After the 100 and during the press conference thing he was right that to grow the sport there needs to be more programs like Sprint and have more people to have access to shows like that.

I haven't fully fleshed out my impression of him, but I'm still having a hard time getting over the Pokeman cards.