Noah Lyles opens up on not being allowed to disclose details of new Adidas contract despite wanting to

American athlete Noah Lyles recently expressed his wish to publicly disclose his headline-making deal with Adidas. However, he revealed that the sports apparel giant did not allow Lyles, despite him requesting it multiple times.

On Wednesday, the six-time world outdoor champion stunned the sports world by signing a contract extension deal with the sports apparel giant that will keep him sponsored till the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Moreover, as per his agency, Global Athletics and Marketing, Inc., Lyles’s deal will go down in history as the “richest contract in the sport of track and field since the retirement of Usain Bolt.”

On Thursday, Noah Lyles appeared in an interview with Citus Mag after qualifying in the heats round of the 60m race at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships. During his interaction, Lyles was asked if he wished to reveal the worth of his latest contract with Adidas. The athlete replied:

"I definitely wish we were able to uh say how much it was in fact somebody made a tweet and they were doing some math off of the 20 million that is assumed that Bolt made in um 2017 and I'm not going to lie there was a number in there that was very very close to the real thing. I was just like dang, I wish I could just at that moment just actually say what it was." (1:26s)

Furthermore, Noah Lyles shared that he tried to convince the stakeholders of Adidas multiple times but was not allowed to do so. However, the athlete understands the reason behind it. He explained in the interview:

"I mean it's the same thing that why they won't let you in the job world so that they can have one up on their employees and what not."

Lyles continued:

"I mean it's just something that's been sucking since you know track and field started and the way my agent phrases is when the track worlds first started and people start first making money uh he believes that it was to do it to not make anybody feel bad that they weren't getting paid but now we're getting to a point where it's like okay most of us are getting paid. The sport needs to adjust to it."

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Noah Lyles is making his indoor track and field debut at the World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024

Lyles at 2024 USATF Indoor Championships

The reigning 100m and 200m world champion, Noah Lyles, will be aiming for his first world indoor title at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships. The event, scheduled from March 1 to March 3, will see Lyles competing in the 60m race.

Nevertheless, the American athlete won the gold medal in the 60m race at the 2024 USATF Indoor Championships on February 17. He left behind his competitors, second-placed Christian Coleman and third-placed Ronnie Baker, to win the gold.

Moreover, Lyles clocked a world record of 6.43s in the race, which was an improvement on his personal best timing of 6.51s from 2022.