On Noah Lyles’ heavily ripped torso there is a four-letter tattoo, spelt out in capital letters: ICON. He decided to get it six years ago as an act of manifestation. Ink it and it will come. But on Thursday night the American’s dream of winning four golds at these Olympics came to an abrupt end due to Covid – and a kid from Botswana they call the schoolboy.
The rumours of Lyles’ sickness began to swirl around the Stade de France moments after he finished with a shock bronze in the 200m, which has always been his best event by far. The news was soon confirmed by Lyles, who said that he had tested positive at 5am on Tuesday morning after waking up with chills, aches and a sore throat.
“I was feeling really horrible,” he admitted, speaking through a mask. “I knew it was more than just being sore from the 100m. Woke up the doctors, we tested and unfortunately it came up that I was positive for Covid.
“My first thought was not to panic,” he added. “I’ve been in worse situations and I’ve run with worse conditions. We just took it day by day, trying to hydrate as much, quarantined off. I’d definitely say it’s taken its toll, for sure. But I’ve never been more proud of myself for being able to come out here and get a bronze medal.”
This is now the second successive Games that Covid has probably cost Lyles an Olympics 200m gold. As his coach, Lance Brauman, has since said, Lyles struggled with having to isolate in 2020 and 2021 and it affected his mental health and his subsequent performances at the Tokyo Games, where he also won bronze.
It also raises further questions about the prevalence of Covid at the Games. There are rumours of numerous coaches and athletes having had it, with Britain’s Adam Peaty testing positive the day after the 100m breaststroke final, having won silver with the initial symptoms. However, organisers have played down suggestions that it is widespread in the Olympic village.
Afterwards Lyles said that he felt like he was improving in the hours leading up to the race, and felt close to 90 or 95% by the time he was called to his starting blocks. But his sickness meant that he had to change his race tactics.
“I knew if I wanted to come out here and win I would have to give everything I’ve had from the get-go,” the 27-year-old said. “I didn’t have any time to save energy. That was the strategy.”
The American was true to his word. Indeed, he appeared to be leading after 60 or 70 metres. But there was none of his customary acceleration around the bend. The tank started to empty and he could only watch as Letsile Tebogo crossed the line in 19.46sec to win Botswana’s first Olympic gold.
Another American, Kenny Bednarek, took silver in 19.62, while Lyles was third in 19.70. The time was fast for most people. But for him it was dawdling.
The 21-year-old Tebogo would surely have been even quicker had he not thumped his chest moments before the line – both in triumph and in memory of his mother, who died in May. Afterwards he revealed he had taken three to four weeks off because he was struggling to process her death.
“It wasn’t really clicking for me that she’s really gone,” he said. “For me, I have to find the reason why I started my athletics journey and why I should continue going on. It was really a beautiful race for me.”
The spikes he wore here in Paris also carried her date of birth to honour her. “It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take inside the field,” he added. “Me, to take her, it gives me a lot of motivation. She’s watching up there, and she’s really, really happy. I didn’t want to put the date of her death, because I’ll get emotional.”
Lyles, meanwhile, clearly couldn’t believe that his Olympic ambitions had been thwarted as he collapsed to the ground. “I’ve had better days but I am walking around again,” he said. “I was quite light headed after that race. The chest pain was definitely active. But after a while I caught my breath and had my wits about me. I feel a lot better now.”
However, he said that he was tempted to swerve the final of the 4x100m relay even if he did improve over the next 24 hours. “At the moment I don’t know,” he said. “I’m feeling more on the side of letting Team USA do their thing. They’ve proven with great certainty that they can handle it without me.
“If that’s the case coming off, then I’m perfectly fine saying: ‘You guys go do your thing, you guys have more than enough speed to be able to handle it and get the gold medal.’”
Lyles, who congratulated Tebogo with a hug after the race, also defended his decision to not tell anyone that he was sick. “We didn’t want everybody to go into a panic,” he explained. “We wanted to be able to compete. We wanted to make it as discreet as possible and you don’t want to tell your competitors you are sick, why would you give them an edge?”
