COVID disrupts Noah Lyles’ sprint double bid: ‘I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics’

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SAINT-DENIS, France — At 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, Noah Lyles woke up with a terrible sore throat, an aching body and chills.

“Those are the symptoms I always had before I got COVID,” Lyles said, “so I thought, I need to test for this.”

The test came back positive, throwing Lyles’ historic quest for an Olympic sprint double into chaos two days before Thursday night’s men’s 200-meter final. Lyles quarantined in a hotel near the Olympic Village, tried to get as much rest and hydration as possible and took whatever medications he could without violating anti-doping rules.

The idea of ​​not running the 200 was something Lyles never seriously considered, especially after he managed to make it to the finals by taking second place in his semifinal heat on Wednesday. Lyles explained that he “still wanted to run” and that doctors gave him the go-ahead to try.

From the start of Thursday’s final, it was clear that the world’s most unbeatable 200 runner was not on his usual high. The American fell behind early and struggled to make up ground after rounding the bend, leaving him too far behind Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and fellow American Kenny Bednarek to overtake either of them before they crossed the finish line.

Tebogo won in a personal best of 19.46 seconds, 16 hundredths of a second faster than second-placed Bednarek. Lyles settled for bronze in 19.70 seconds, almost four-tenths of a second off his personal best and even further off Usain Bolt’s world record, which he had aspired to break.

When asked how his illness affected him during the race, Lyles said, “It definitely affected my performance.”

He added that his girlfriend, Junelle Bromfield, told him Thursday morning that he had been “coughing all night long.”

After Thursday’s final, Lyles said he felt “dizzy” and had “shortness of breath” and “chest pains.” He sat on the court and received medical attention before being removed from the court in a wheelchair. In the bowels of the Stade de France, Lyles’ mother was seen running through a hallway.

About an hour later, Lyles, who suffers from asthma, said he felt “much better.”

“I was able to catch my breath and come to my senses,” he said.

In retrospect, the first sign that something was amiss came that Wednesday heat, when he finished second to Tebogo. He then skipped the post-race mixed zone interview session. According to USA Track & Field, he “went straight to medical.” He also wore a surgical mask in the staging room prior to both races on Wednesday and Thursday.

Lyles had hoped to become the first American man to complete the Olympic sprint double since Carl Lewis 40 years ago. He appeared well on his way after winning the closest 100 meters in Olympic history on Sunday night, diving at the finish line to beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five thousandths of a second.

Lyles was the odds-on favorite to win the 200. It’s his specialty, his first love, the event that comes most naturally to him.

When asked after the 100 meters on Sunday how confident he was of winning the men’s 200 meters, Lyles grinned and said, “Pretty confident, I can’t lie.”

That was before the COVID diagnosis.

Lyles was expected to compete in the final of the U.S. men’s 4×100-meter relay on Friday. Now, that race is in serious doubt for him.

“I’m going to talk to the coaches,” Lyles said. “To be honest, I want to be very honest and transparent with them. I’m going to let them make the decision.”

Late Thursday night, Lyles posted on Instagram that he believes the 2024 Olympics are over.

“I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics,” he wrote. “It’s not the Olympics (sic) I dreamed of, but it left me with so much joy in my heart.”