Winner. Entertainer. History maker. By the time the Paris Olympics are over, Noah Lyles hopes to be all of that and maybe more.
The confident 26-year-old sprinter thinks he can win medals, break records and bring the entire sport of track and field onto America’s screens for more than 10 days every four years.
These are audacious goals. Winning the 100 and 200 meters and maybe a relay or two would put him in a category with Usain Bolt, Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson, to name a few. Making track popular again - that’s a whole different, and more complex, mission, and one Lyles has not shown any fear of tackling.
“I want to see everybody be able to see the stories we create, the moments that are shared, and the big events that we have,” Lyles said.
“And, we need personalities to be able to show that. Because just going out there and winning doesn’t mean everybody’s watching.”
Using behind-the-scenes documentaries to draw new fans: Lyles has a two-pronged strategy. The first part is dominating the sprints. That second part is becoming a must-see personality who transcends both track and sports, the way Bolt did.
Lyles has spent the last year or more laying the groundwork for that second part.
He has opened up his life for two behind-the-scenes documentaries. The first, “Untitled: The Noah Lyles Project,” came out last year.
The second, a Netflix production called “SPRINT” that debuted this summer, features Lyles as a main character among some Olympians including Sha’Carri Richardson and the stable of Jamaica’s fastest women sprinters.
When he’s not on TV, Lyles has curated a look outside - or make that coming into - the track.
He is making his “walk-in” to meet an event, arriving in everything from a green sweater with church-window-shaped cut-outs to black leather pants to the tailored navy suit with the signature Adidas stripes down the side of the slacks he wore to the US Olympic trials.
There, he was greeted by Snoop Dogg, who carried a briefcase they opened for a big reveal of Lyles’ track kit for the 100-meter final.
“It’s to keep hype,” Lyles explained. “If you’re generating excitement and hype, it’s like, What’s in the briefcase?’ You want to know what’s in the briefcase.”
Lyles took a notable dig at the NBA: Getting others to follow his lead in a sport filled with solo artists is only part of the mountain Lyles is trying to climb. Another part might have been best illustrated last year when, while articulating his vision for track after completing the 100-200 double at world championships, he made an off-hand comparison between track and the NBA.
“The thing that hurts me the most is I have to watch the NBA finals and they have World Champion’ on their head,” Lyles said. “World champion of what? The United States?”
