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Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles, who finished with a bronze medal in the men’s 200m final after testing positive for Covid-19, has now pulled out of the 4x100m relay races at Paris 2024.
The American, who tested positive on Tuesday morning, made it through the 200m heats and decided to compete in Thursday night’s final, where he was beaten by Botswana’s Letzile Tepoko.
After the race, Lyles was spotted sitting in a chair and the 27-year-old was helped off the track in a wheelchair.
Lyles confirmed the news: “I have Covid. I tested positive around 5am on Tuesday. I felt real cold in the middle of the night, sore, sore throat and many other symptoms I had before covid.
“It definitely affected my performance. I had to take a lot of breaks… I was coughing all night. More than anything, I’m proud of myself and I’m here to win bronze with Covid.
“I’ve had good days, but I’m coming back around. After that race I was really light. Shortness of breath, chest pain, but after a while I can catch my breath and get my wits about me. I’m really good now.”
Lyles revealed that he was quarantined at a hotel near the Olympic Village after testing positive. “We tried to keep this close to the chest,” he said.
“The people I know are the medical staff, the trainer, my mother. We didn’t want everyone to panic, we wanted them to compete.
“We wanted to make it as free as possible. I’m competitive. Why give them an edge over you?”
In an Instagram post after the race, Lyles confirmed that he was not trying to help the U.S. team win Friday’s 4x100m relay gold.
He wrote: “I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics. It wasn’t the Olympics I dreamed of, but it brought so much joy to my heart. I hope everyone enjoyed the show. Whether you’re for me or against me, you have to admit you saw it, don’t you?”
Lyles was aiming to complete a rare triple of 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the same Olympics. Only four men have won the triple in the same Games and after winning the 100m crown by five thousandths of a second in a dramatic photo finish on Monday night, Lyles was still hoping to join American legends Jesse Owens (1936) and Bobby Morrow. (1956) and Carl Lewis (1984), as well as Jamaica’s Usain Bolt (2012 and 2016) are on the list.
But – just like in his semi-final the night before – Lyles never caught Tepoko coming off the curve to push him back.
Tepoko became the first African to win the title – an African record – and in doing so earned Botswana’s first Olympic gold medal.
Former US Olympic champion Michael Johnson challenged the notion that Lyles was injured while on punditry work for the BBC – before news of the Covid diagnosis filtered out.
“He’s definitely not carrying an injury because you can’t do this with an injury, you can’t run 19.70,” he said.
“If anything, there’s some sort of illness that saps his energy from being able to carry that momentum all the way through.”
Shortly after, US Track and Field (USATF) broke the news that the bronze medalist ran the race after testing positive for Covid.
A USADF statement said: “We can confirm that Noah Lyles tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday. In response, the USOPC and USATF quickly implemented all necessary protocols to prioritize his health, the well-being of our team, and the safety of our fellow competitors.
“Ensuring the safety of Team USA athletes is our number one commitment. After a thorough medical evaluation, Noah chose to compete tonight. We respect his decision and will monitor his condition closely.
“As an organization, we strictly follow the IOC guidelines on respiratory diseases to prevent the spread of disease among team members and protect their health and performance.”
Deboko, who won bronze at last year’s world championships, set a national record of 9.86 seconds when she finished sixth in the 100m final in Paris. Bednarek chased him down in 19.62 seconds to claim his second consecutive silver.
Lyles and Bednarek were set to team up in the men’s 4×100 relay, where the U.S. would have been strong favorites to win gold and take the crown from Italy, who shocked the world in Tokyo, but Lyles’ apparent withdrawal gives other nations a greater chance. Pinch the Olympic title from the Americans.
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