Open Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Roula Khalaf picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The world’s fastest competitive athlete, Noah Lyles, is aiming to become the first athlete since Usain Bolt to complete the Olympic sprint double.
Thursday’s 200m final in Paris will be a fitting stage for the Olympian to showcase his two best talents. After winning gold in the 100m on Sunday, Lyles backed himself up to take the top spot again with plenty of confidence.
„None of them won,” he said of his rivals. „When I return, they’re depressed.”
Lyles, 27, is a longtime 200m specialist who won gold at the Youth Olympics a decade ago. Her personal best of 19.31 seconds, set when she won her second of three golds at the World Athletics Championships in 2022, is the third-fastest time ever and more than a tenth of a second ahead of her Paris rivals.
Bolt, a retired Jamaican sprinter, set the 200m world record in 2009 with a time of 19.19 seconds – and Lyles was clear about breaking it. After making the U.S. team in June, he said he set two goals for himself: “To win Olympic gold, and then . . . Captures the world record. It’s on the list.
Lyles overcame adversity to rise to prominence on track and field’s biggest stages. He battled depression in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic and finished third in the 200 meters at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
Since then, he has worked to re-establish himself as the world’s best runner, while leaning into the role of pot-striker in an effort to boost the sport’s media profile and the prize money offered to a new crop of investors. To redesign the game.
Star of a recent Netflix documentary series SprintLyles targets American stars in sports like basketball who declare themselves „world champions” for winning domestic league titles.
„You know what hurts me the most, I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have 'world champion’ on their head. World champion of what? The United Nations?” Said after winning Sprint double At the 2023 World Championships. „I love America sometimes, but it’s not the world.”
If Lyles wins the 200m final, it will give him a bigger platform to showcase his vision. Competitors included his compatriot Erion Knighton, who clocked a personal best of 19.49 seconds, and Botswana’s Letzile Tebogo, who clocked 19.50.
Lyles’ dramatic photo-finish victory in the 100 meters saw him beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by just five-thousandths of a second.
Jamaica, which has become a fast power in recent decades with the rise of Bolt and other athletes, has had a disappointing Games – with just one athlete winning gold so far in the men’s discus event. Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce and Sherika Jackson withdrew from the women’s 100m and 200m races respectively, with the latter pulling out of the short-distance race before the start of the Games.
USA’s Gabby Thomas won the women’s 200m on Tuesday. Reflecting Lyles’ motivational qualities, Thomas said he was somewhat inspired by his man’s performance in the 100m.
“When I heard Noah go after what he wanted and take it, I knew that no matter where I was in this race, I could go after it and take it. [the gold],” she said.
Data visualization by Samira Chaudhary and photo finish graphic by Ian Patt