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SAINT-DENIS, France – At 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, Noah Lyles woke up with a sore throat, body aches and a cold.
Lyles said: “Those are the symptoms I’ve been having since before I got COVID, so I was like, I have to get it checked out.”
The test came back positive, putting Lyles’ Olympic sprint history in tatters two days before Thursday night’s men’s 200 medley final. Lyles was isolated in a hotel near the Olympic Village, trying to get as much rest and fluids as he could and take any medication he could without breaking the rules. anti-doping.
The thought of not competing in the 200 was never something Lyles took seriously, especially after he was able to advance to the finals by finishing second in his semifinal heat. on Wednesday. Lyles explained that he “still wanted to run” and that the doctors allowed him to try.
From the start of Thursday’s game, it was clear that the world’s most undefeated runner in the 200 didn’t explode. The American fell behind early in the morning and struggled to make up ground after a spin, leaving Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and fellow American Kenny Bednarek to overtake either of them before reaching the finish line.
Tebogo won in 19.46 seconds, 16 hundredths of a second ahead of second-placed Bednarek. Lyles took bronze in 19.70 seconds, nearly four-tenths of a second off his personal best and off Usain Bolt’s world record ambitions. it breaks.
When asked how his illness affected him during the race, Lyles said, “It definitely affected my performance.”
He also said his girlfriend, Junelle Bromfield, told him Thursday morning that he had been “coughing all night.”
After Thursday’s final game, Lyles said he felt “light-headed” and had “shortness of breath” and “chest pain.” He sat on the rail and received medical attention before being taken off the field in a wheelchair. Inside the Stade de France, Lyle’s mother was seen running down the corridor.
About an hour later, Lyles, who suffers from asthma, said he felt “much better.”
“I was able to breathe and regain my composure,” he said.
In retrospect, the first sign that something was amiss came in Wednesday’s first heat when he finished following Tebogo. He then skipped a conference on inter-ethnic areas. According to USA Track & Field, he went “straight to medical.” He also wore a surgical mask in the podium before both races on Wednesday and Thursday.
Lyles was hoping to become the first American man to complete the Olympic double since Carl Lewis 40 years ago. He looked fit after winning the 100 meters in Olympic history on Sunday night, pipping Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson to the finish line by five thousandths of a second.
Coming in, Lyles was a heavy favorite to win the 200. It’s his specialty, his first love, an event that comes naturally to him.
Asked Sunday after the 100 how confident he felt about winning the men’s 200, Lyles broke down and said, “I’m pretty confident, I’m not going to lie.”
It was before the COVID test.
Lyles was expected to be part of the US 4×100-meter relay finals on Friday. Now that race is asking a lot of him.
“I’ll talk to the coaches,” Lyles said. “To be honest, I want to be very honest and transparent with them. I’ll let them decide.”
Late Thursday night, Lyles posted on Instagram that he thinks his 2024 Olympics are over.
“I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics,” he wrote. “It’s not the Olympics [sic] I was dreaming but it left me with great Joy in my heart.”
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