Noah Lyles spoke about winning the 200m finals in a press conference at the Paris Olympics. The American athlete exuded confidence in his performance in the upcoming event as he aims for his second gold medal at the quadrennial games in Paris.
Lyles won the gold medal in the men's 100m at the 2024 Paris Olympics in a close photo finish with Jamaican athlete, Kishane Thompson. Lyles, who had a slow start, pulled through in the final moments of the race and clinched the victory by a time difference of 0.005s. The American clinched the gold medal after clocking 9.784s whereas Kishane Thomas finished second with a time of 9.789s.
The American spoke about his upcoming 200m in a post-race press conference. Lyles holds the record for the third-fastest 200m of all time with a performance of 19.31s and he expressed his confidence in his performance, sending off a clear warning to his competitors.
" Pretty confident. I can't lie. You know, Kenny put up a fast time at trials and that definitely woke me up. I was, you know, very proud of him and definitely, he is not going to take it how he did it here in the 100 lying down, he is going to say, you know, I am going after it but my job is to make sure that that man ain't winning. None of them is winning. When I come off the turn, they will be depressed," he said. (12:18)
Noah Lyles on his photo finish in the 100m final at the Paris Olympics
Noah Lyles spoke about his photo finish in the 100m final in a post-race press conference. The American athlete opened up feeling that Kishane Thompson must have sealed the victory before the results were announced on the big screen.
"It was a crazy moment because I did think that Kisane had that and I was like man, I'm going to have to swallow my pride which I don't have a problem doing. Respect deserves respect. Everybody on the field to be honest came out on the field knowing that they could win this race and that is the mindset we have to have," he said. (8:35)
"Iron sharpen iron of course, I didn't do this against a slow crowd, I did this against the best of the best on the biggest stage with the biggest pressure," he added.
Noah Lyles will be competing in the men's 200m semi-finals on August 7, 2024, at 2:02 pm ET.