Noah Lyles is an American track and field athlete and a world champion sprinter. He chatted about his latest endeavors in athletics.
Most recently, Lyles won the men’s 200 meter sprint at the NYC Grand Prix with a time of 19.77 seconds.
He is the American record holder in the men’s 200 meters race with a time of 19.31 seconds.
Lyles participated in an in-person press event on Saturday, June 8th at Icahn Stadium.
Lyles on the ‘secret’ contents of his briefcase
When asked about what is in the briefcase that he has been carrying around, he responded, “Something special is in there… you guys will find out at the USAs.”
Lyles on watching his competitors’ process on an intimate level
Lyles opened up about what it feels like to watch his competitors’ process on an intimate level.
“It humanizes people a little too much for me. I was planning to binge this before the Olympics but maybe not anymore because it humanizes them too much for me, so that might not be good for my ‘Kill or Be Killed’ mentality,” he explained.
Anime that he is present watching
He shared that the anime that he is current watching is the latest season of “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.”
Docu-series ‘Sprint’
He was also a part of the premiere of the docu-series “Sprint.” When asked what we can expect from it, he said with a sweet laugh, “It depends… how much do you want me to spoil?”
Best advice that he was ever given
On the best advice that he was ever given, he said with a sweet laugh, “Don’t grow up, it’s a trap.”
Lyles hopes that track and field athletes can support themselves financially
He addressed that he would like to see track and field athletes be able to support themselves financially.
“While I am not an economics major, I know it is very hard for us to be able to save for retirement when we don’t have a 401K. There is not much we can do when we are just looked up as contractors as opposed to employees… we don’t have benefits out here.”
Success
On his definition of the word success, he remarked, “Anytime that I see progress or anytime that I try. I don’t like the idea of not trying. There are too many times where people won’t do something just because they are told that it will probably be a ‘no.’ Probably a ‘no’ is not a ‘no.’ ”
Ceiling of U.S. athletes
He discussed the ceiling of U.S. athletes. “If you’ve looked at the past two World Championships after Tokyo, the U.S. had had strong dominance in the gold medal stand, and on the podium as a whole,” Lyles said.
“We’ve been grabbing medals that we are supposed to, and we’ve been grabbing medals on top of that, so that’s very reassuring. After 2022, we’ve been sweeping everything and that has made us feel good, especially going into the Olympics. I don’t think we are losing anybody… I think we are gaining year by year,” he elaborated.
New music in the works
In addition to his athletic career, Lyles is also a musician.
He revealed that he does have new music in the works. “I have a ton of music but unfortunately, it is not copyrighted, so I can’t really get most of it out,” he acknowledged.
To learn more about Noah Lyles, follow him on Instagram.
