Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Who is 100m star Noah Lyles? What did the USA star say about Zharnel Hughes?
By Jonny Bray
Published 02/08/2024 at 11:10 GMT+1
Noah Lyles will be among the favourites in the 100m final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The sprinter from the USA won bronze in the 200m at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and was one of the stars of the 2023 World Athletics Championships, but now he has to turn up on the grandest stage of them all. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at the 27-year-old's journey.
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It does not get much bigger than the men's 100m final at an Olympic Games.
The eyes of the world will be on Paris when the latest generation of sprinters take their marks.
Iconic names like Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, and Linford Christie have all won the event in years gone by.
Then there is three-time winner Usain Bolt, who was catapulted into global superstardom after winning back-to-back-to-back Olympic crowns between 2008 and 2016.
A new star will be made in Paris, with a fresh group of athletes ready to battle it out at the Stade de France.
Marcell Jacobs came out on top in Tokyo three years ago, and he has returned to the French capital to defend his title.
The first round is set to start on August 3, with the semi-finals and finals scheduled for August 4.
However, Jacobs is not the name on everybody's lips ahead of the race.
The USA's Noah Lyles has caught the world's attention since winning a bronze medal in the 200m in Tokyo, and now he is ready to test himself in the 100m too.
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With that in mind, we are going to take a closer look at one of the most exciting talents in athletics.
Who is Noah Lyles?
Lyles first caught the world's attention at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
However, it was far from a conventional Olympic debut.
The 27-year-old qualified for the final as one of the fastest losers in the 200m semi-final.
He did win bronze in the final, but an athlete of his quality would have expected more.
Since Tokyo, Lyles has taken aim at British sprinter Zharnel Hughes.
“If you don’t have main character energy, track and field isn’t for you," he said, implying that Hughes did not have the necessary qualities to beat him.
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Lyles may still be in the hunt for his first Olympic gold medal, but was one of the stars of the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
He won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay, ensuring that he would be one of the favourites in Paris.
And he certainly has self-belief. In a recent Team USA video posted to social media he called himself "the fastest man in the world", and he reiterated the sentiment on at a press conference on Monday.
“It’s me,” Lyles said. “It’s always going to be me.”
That comment didn't go down well with other sprinters, including Jamaica's Kishane Thompson and Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya, who have both run faster 100m times in 2024 than Lyles' best.
The American has brought plenty of controversy and star power to the event, but now he will have to back it up on the Olympic stage.
discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, and the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer.
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