Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles has by no means shied away from talking his thoughts, and his new podcast, Past The Information, gives him with a platform to take action. Within the inaugural episode, Lyles takes goal on the U.S. Olympic crew, accusing them of mishandling his constructive COVID-19 take a look at through the Paris Video games.
Lyles, who examined constructive just a few days after successful the lads’s 100m Olympic title, displays on how the state of affairs was dealt with—or quite, mishandled. “I feel Crew USA tousled by not placing out a press release,” mentioned Lyles on Past The Information. “There was a possibility for them to defend their athlete, they usually didn’t.”
Lyles says he started to really feel unwell through the semifinals of the lads’s 200m, the place Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo edged him out with a time of 19.96 seconds, handing Lyles his first 200m lack of the 2024 season. Within the ultimate (4 days after the 100m ultimate), Lyles ended up with bronze, ending behind his American Kenny Bednarek, and Tebogo, who broke the African document with a time of 19.46 seconds.
Information of Lyles’s constructive COVID-19 take a look at emerged after the 200m ultimate, resulting in widespread hypothesis on-line. Critics accused Lyles of utilizing the prognosis as an excuse for not successful gold within the occasion. The state of affairs worsened when Lyles was noticed at a Paris nightclub two days later.
We knew all alongside that you simply by no means had Covid bro we aren’t dumb 😂😂😂
— Lorrenzo Diego (@lorrenzom) August 10, 2024
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) confronted backlash for not addressing Lyles’s constructive take a look at through the Video games. Based on Lyles, Crew USA had the chance to problem a press release that would have supplied readability and defended him, however failed to take action. The USOPC’s web site notes that it doesn’t have a protocol for managing high-profile athlete sicknesses or accidents on the Olympics.
As viewers of Netflix’s Dash (Season 2) documentary have seen (spoiler alert), U.S. Olympic officers had been conscious of Lyles’s constructive and subsequent unfavourable checks through the Video games, including to the frustration over their lack of communication.
Lyles shared his ideas on his new podcast, Past The Information, co-hosted by fellow Olympic champions Grant Holloway and Rai Benjamin. The podcast goals to broaden the attain of observe and area by discussing key points, athlete tales and behind-the-scenes information. Episodes shall be launched weekly, with the debut episode airing on Thursday, Dec. 12.
