Noah Lyles has emerged as one of the standout athletes among Team USA's men's track and field squad, often for reasons some observers find distasteful. Noah Lyles' legend will continue to grow after he managed to take bronze in the men's 200m while testing positive for COVID-19 before the race.
Noah Lyles, 27, finished third overall in Thursday's 200-meter final, and as the race concluded, the controversial athlete shared with a crowd of reporters that he was competing while suffering from COVID-19.
“I tested positive around 5 o'clock Tuesday morning,” Lyles said at a post-match event while wearing a mask. “I woke up in the middle of the night only to feel really chilly, sore, sore throat. And those were kind of a lot of the symptoms that I always had before I got COVID, and I was like, “I've got to try this.”
Lyles said he self-quarantined away from the Olympic Village in a nearby hotel in Paris and took whatever permitted medication he could.
“I still wanted to run. they said it was still possible,” Lyles shared. “So we just stayed away from everyone and tried to take it all year. And to be honest, I knew that if I wanted to come out here and win, I had to give it everything I had from the start. I didn't have time to conserve energy.”
Lyles added, “First, we didn't want everyone to panic. we wanted them to be able to compete,” Lyles said. “And then two, we wanted to be able to make it as unobtrusive as possible. And you never want to tell your competitors you're sick. Why would you give them an edge over you?'
At the event, Lyles was not sure if he would appear to compete in the 4x100m relay, but it appears he will be closing out his Summer Olympics appearances after a response shared on the X platform highlighted this fact.
“First I want to thank God for getting me through all these Olympics! Second, I want to congratulate @LetsileTebogo3 @kenny_bednarek and everyone else for an amazing Olympic 200m final. Finally, I want to thank everyone for the supportive messages. I believe this will be the end of the 2024 Olympics. It's not the Olympics I dreamed of, but it left so much joy in my heart. I hope everyone enjoyed the show. Whether you were for me or against me, you have to admit you watched it, right? See you next time Sincerely, your world's fastest man for the next 4 years!” Lyles he wrote in X.
Letsile Tebogo of Botswana won his country's first Olympic gold medal, while American runner Kenny Bednarek won his second silver medal of the Summer Games. In a post-match presser, Tebogo mentioned Lyles after being asked if he was positioning himself to become a star in the athletics world.
“I can't be the face of athletics because I'm not an arrogant or loud person like Noah [Lyles]”, with Bednarek looking on.
[h/t ESPN]
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Photo: Getty