Noah Lyles' first Olympic experience was a trying one.
While the star American sprinter walked away from the 2020 Tokyo Games with his first medal, he had set his sights much higher than that.
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Lyles was aiming to pull off the sprint double in the 100m and 200m events. But he failed to qualify for the 100m before finishing third in a 200m final he was favored to win. After earning bronze, Lyles opened up about his struggles with mental health in the leadup to the pandemic-delayed Games.
“Somebody asked me why I told people on Twitter that I was on antidepressants. It was strictly for the idea that I had taken something and it made me feel better," Lyles said at the time. “I knew there were a lot of people out there like me who were too scared to say something or even start that journey.
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"I wanted them to know if you guys see me in a big light, I want you to know that it’s OK not to feel good and you can go out and talk to somebody. ... This is a serious issue. You don't want to wake up one day and think, 'I don't want to be here anymore.'”
As Lyles gears up for his second Olympic appearance in Paris this summer, the 26-year-old member of Team USA feels he's better set up for success compared to the first go-around.
"The Noah leading up to Tokyo was depressed," Lyles told NBC. "This Noah is not — and that's a dangerous Noah."
Lyles' performance on the track would seem to back that statement up. At last summer's world championships in Budapest, Hungary, he became the first male sprinter since Usain Bolt in 2015 to capture both the 100m and 200m titles.
Lyles is next looking to make history as the first male sprinter since Bolt to pull off the sprint double at an Olympics, a feat the Jamaican legend achieved in 2008 and 2012. That's not all he's hoping to get done in Paris, either. Lyles recently told The Times he wants in on the 4x100m and 4x400m relay events, as well, giving him a chance to bring home four golds.
Those golds are Lyles' main focus, but they aren't the only things he's chasing.
The Alexandria, Virginia, native also wants to topple Bolt's 200m world record of 19.19 seconds that has stood since the 2009 worlds. Lyles' personal best in the 200m is 19.31 seconds, which he recorded at the 2022 worlds.
But, in Lyles' eyes, posting a sub-19.19 time is a matter of when, not if. In a 2023 interview with USA TODAY Sports, he said of Bolt's record: "I know that I’m going to break it."
"World records are meant to broken," he added in an interview with NBC. "It's just another goal to check off the list and it's always fun to go after the top.
"We're too easily in this habit of doing what we used to do and going to the places where it's comfortable. It's time to get uncomfortable. It's time to really start figuring out what is the best solution for the future and not what has worked in the past.
"I still got Olympic gold medals to get. I still got records to break. Why shoot for the clouds when you can aim for the stars?"
