"I had to go in tricking my mind and body" - Noah Lyles addresses claims on why he jumped at the start of 200m final if he had COVID at Paris Olympics

Noah Lyles unveiled the reason behind his leaps before his 200m run at the Paris Olympics despite his COVID-19-stricken health. He faced criticism from a section of fans for his enthusiastic jumps right before the start of the 200m finals, but he has now shared that it helped him trick his mind and body and prepare for the race.

Lyles, the reigning 100m and 200m world champion added the first Olympic gold to his wall of fame. He faced a highly competitive 100m line-up at the Paris Games and took victory in 9.79s, ahead of Jamaica's Kishane Thompson and US sprinter Fred Kerley. For the first time in history, the time gap between the first and eighth finishers was only 0.12s.

He ran the 200m race as a top seed but finished third in 19.70s — his first 200m upset in a long time. In an NBC interview later, he confirmed that he tested positive for COVID-19 two days before the race.

"I woke up the doctors and we tested, and unfortunately, it came out that I was positive for Covid.” (via CNN)

Before his run, Noah Lyles was seen jumping and pumping himself up for the 200m run. His health scare didn't surface until then. However, after the completion of the event, he lay on the track gasping for breath. He was carried off the track and was seen on the sidelines in a wheelchair.

Some fans online threw shade at him for being pretentious and acting like a 'clown'.

In response to the comments, Lyles said that the movements helped him trick his mind and body and keep his health difficulties aside.

"If I didn't do that, I would not have been able to encourage myself enough to get excited to run the race. I had to go in tricking my mind and my body that I was gonna run just as well as any other day," he said. (via an X post of a fan)

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Noah Lyles - "I’ve run with worse conditions, I felt"

Noah Lyles was headstrong enough to run with a health setback, thinking that he ran in worse conditions. He prepared himself in a way to not panic and give up midway through.

"My first thought was not to panic, you know, I’m thinking I’ve been in worse situations. I’ve run with worse conditions, I felt," he shared in an NBC interview. (via CNN)

A total of 40 athletes including him had tested positive for COVID-19 and other respiratory complications at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Lyles was not able to participate in the men's 4x100m relay finals, where the US team got disqualified because of a botched baton exchange.