The multiple major global champion talks through his Tokyo expectations, how he’s matured as an athlete since 2019 and his advice for Gout Gout.
Noah Lyles believes the sky is the limit at the World Athletics Championships.
Off the back of becoming a six-time Diamond League 200m champion, the US athlete is now aiming to retain his world 100m and 200m titles in Tokyo.
If he achieves the feat then Lyles will be the first male sprinter since Usain Bolt to go back-to-back in both events – the Jamaican did it at Moscow 2013 and Beijing 2015.
Lyles, who is never short of self-belief or confidence, thinks that he should join the pantheon of sprinting greats if he secures golds in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
“It’s one of those years where, when I get all the golds, the conversation is now okay, we’re having a Mount Rushmore conversation,” he says.
“It’s no longer ‘yeah, he’s good for this generation’. It’s like ‘okay, how are we going to compare him to the rest of the greats from the previous generations?’ So it’s a pretty big year.
After securing the Diamond League title in Zurich, Lyles stated that if there wan option to get any colour medal in the 100m and then break the world record in the 200m, he might take up that option.
Bolt has held both 100m (9.58) and 200m (19.19) world records since 2009 and Lyles is joint-12th (9.79) and third (19.31) on the respective global all-time lists.
However, the American believes his legacy is more than cemented already, regardless of whether he ever breaks either world record at some point in his career.
“If I have to give out my rap sheet, we’d be here for a long time!” he says. “That in itself is proof that I have a legacy to begin with, so I’m not too worried of if I have to prove anything to anybody. Everything I’m doing is still for myself, and it always has been.”
So how quick can Lyles go in Tokyo and what can he achieve at the Japan National Stadium?
In the immediate build-up to the championships, the multiple major global champion spent time in Amsterdam training under the watchful eye of Lance Brauman.
After a spate of 60m races at the start of the year, Lyles opened up outdoors later than usual, with a 19.88 (-0.8) win over Letsile Tebogo at the Monaco Diamond League in July.
Lyles is coy about going too much into the training detail itself but, based off results over the past week, is even more confident now ahead of Tokyo.
“This last week everything has been clicking,” he says. When I had my injury back in April, I was already doing really well. So it was kind of a bummer to get stopped in the moment. It took a bit longer coming out of it and I then wanted to see the results.
“Like I was already seeing good results, but it just wasn’t translating to the track. I’ve seen glimpses on both sides now. I’ve now dropped a 9.90 100m and 19.6 200m so I am confident everything will work out well when it matters.”
As well as potentially replicating Bolt in becoming a back-to-back world 100m/200m champion, Lyles could also match the Jamaican’s tally of four world 200m titles.
The first of those for Lyles came back in 2019 when he was aged just 22 in Doha. For the three months preceding those championships, the US athlete spent time in Europe and, in his recent Youtube video, talked through how he got homesick.
That all feels an age away now for Lyles but it’s something he never forgets.
“I actually did the exact same thing this year, where I’ve been staying in Europe since after the USATF Outdoor Championships. You can be homesick but I got a job to do.
“Knowing what I’ll need and having the maturity to be like, ‘okay, this is the goal and this is what I’m trying to obtain. So this is the situation I need to put myself in.
“I haven’t been home for a while but I know what my body wants. This is the person I need to be. This is how I need to be building up into things. And then it’s about being very confident in the idea of ‘hey everything is gonna click at the right time’. Like, I am a championship performer.”
Lyles is perhaps one of the best people on the planet then to give advice to Gout Gout, the teenage sprints sensation who will be making his world championships debut in Tokyo.
Still just 17, Gout has already been compared to the likes of Bolt and also trained with Lyles under Brauman back in February.
Lyles is full of praise for the teenager and likes how his coach Di Sheppard has nurtured the Australian so far.
“I’ve seen my fair share of talent but he’s got tonnes of it,” he adds. “I’d say that the biggest thing that’s gonna aid him is just growing his muscles over time and maturing mentally. If he does he will get it right when the time is right.
“I’ve really liked what he, his coach and team have done this year, where they’ve just got wins underneath their belt.
“You learn so much from just knowing what a call room is, how to warm up on time and understanding what it’s going to be like having competitors near you.
“I’ve watched a lot of people who struggled from going from the college scene to the pro scene. It’s like ‘I was the top dog and now I’m a fish in an ocean because you’re facing the world’. So it is very important to have some confidence.”
