Noah Lyles named World Athlete of the Year for Men's track, talks about how losing the award in 2022 "started the fire" in 2023

Noah Lyles will be ending his 2023 on a high after being crowned the World Of the Year on Monday night. The 26-year-old took home his maiden win, beating out other legends of the track and field world like Indian Neeraj Chopra, American Ryan Crouser, and more.

Lyles, a prominent name in the world of athletics, has had a truly phenomenal year. The sprinter, who went undefeated in his specialist event, the 200m, last year has seemingly got even better in 2023.

In August, Noah Lyles completed the sprint treble at the 2033 Budapest World Athletics Championships, becoming the first person to achieve this feat since the legendary Usain Bolt.

The American started his campaign in Hungary with a dominant display, clocking a personal best of 9.83 to win gold. Just a handful of days later, Lyles stormed to his third World Championships gold in the 200m, making him the most decorated sprinter in the event second only to Bolt. Next, Noah completed his hat-trick of wins when he anchored the American men's team to a victory in the 4x100m relay.

For Noah Lyles, receiving the 2023 World Athlete of the Year is redemption for having lost the same award last year to Sweden's pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis. In his acceptance speech for the accolade, the sprinter said,

"(It) Probably started the fire for 2023, not getting it in 2022. I remember when Mondo got his award last year, and I leaned over to my mum and said, "they're really going to make me win this hundred," and I went back to my coach and said alright let's get to work."

Noah Lyles named USATF Athlete of the Year

The World Athlete of the Year is not the only award Noah Lyles has pocketed this season. Earlier this same month, the American had the honor of winning his third Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year, becoming only the second person ever to do so.

In his acceptance speech for the award, Lyles spoke passionately on the importance of being heard and narrating your own story, saying,

"It's hard to go along and not have your story be heard, somebody asked me what's one of my biggest fears and what the thing that gets me the baddest - it's me not being heard. It's hard to go through life and not be heard. And I know that everybody here has a story to tell, I just wanna see y'all tell it, I wanna see you do it."