Noah Lyles always manages to be at the center stage. Whatever the Florida native does, seems to find its way to the headlines. This increased tenfold after the US track sensation made history by clinching the 100m gold medal back in Paris. His dramatic competition with Kishane Thompson will go down in Olympic history, for sure! While his session ended abruptly due to a COVID-19 infection, leaving Lyles with the bronze medal at the men’s 200m event finale, the 27-year-old is all fired up this year and is not holding back!

Taking to the track in Gainesville, Florida for the RADD Invitational, Lyles buckled up for a 60m showdown. It was a one-man show as Noah Lyles dominated through and through. Clocking a blitzkrieg timing of 6.62s, the 27-year-old lived up to his reputation. Furthermore, he finished first at the New Balance Grand Prix on Feb 2. The Olympic champion’s incredible run seems to have left US track and field legend, Justin Gatlin impressed. Speaking on the Ready Set Go podcast, Gatlin sat down with Rodney Green to discuss all things Noah Lyles. 

Analyzing Lyles’ performances, Gatlin thinks that it will be a difficult task to topple Lyles at the moment. He even opined that one probably needed to punch Noah Lyles to beat him. We’ve been saying it for like a year and a half almost now. We said to beat this guy, you going to have to punch him in the mouth. In the mouth. And listen, all y’all been throwing punches, but this dude has been.” Listening to Gatlin’s words, Rodney Green immediately agreed. 

Green chimed in saying that Lyles did get punched twice. Green was referring to when Christian Coleman defeated Noah Lyles at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships. The other time the Olympic gold medalist got ‘punched’ was when he lost to Oblique Seville just ahead of the Olympics. But as Green pointed out the two exceptions, Gatlin did not seem to agree fully. The US track legend countered by saying, “Listen, I’ll go with the Oblique one, but actually, the one indoors, that wasn’t a punch in the mouth because… At the end of the day, that was not his domain. We were just seeing the birth of the Noah we see now.”

Gatlin also pointed out how Lyles began to pick pace after his loss to Coleman. In fact, he even went on to defeat Coleman at the Nationals. Thus, it went on to show how quickly things changed for the good for Noah Lyles. However, despite all the talks about his bright form, fans cannot stop comparing him with Kishane Thompson. What’s more? they had some somber news to deliver following a fantastic performance from the Jamaican. But Justin Gatlin was once again there to defend the US sprinter. 

Justin Gatlin defends Noah Lyles against Kishane Thompson backlash

Noah Lyles defeated Kishane Thompson by a hair’s breadth. It was easily one of the narrowest victories, and defeats, in recent years. Quite expectedly, the comparisons trickled down to the new season as well. Much to everyone’s amazement, the Jamaican clocked a better 60m timing than the American sprinter. Back in January 18, 2025, Thompson ran 60m in just 6.48s. This was 0.12s faster than that of Noah Lyles. Soon, the US sprinter started to face the heat for his slow timings. But Justin Gatlin did not think the concern was at all necessary. 

In his Ready Set Go podcast, Gatlin mentioned how Lyles was being bashed for his slow timings last year too. “Well, I’m not too concerned about Noah indoors, because even last year, I think he opened up even slower, right, than he did this season,” Gatlin opined. He also chimed in saying, “But one thing you do see from Noah is the fact that he’s still working on his race pattern. At that 20-meter mark, like you said, it’s the Noah show.”

Gatlin further stated that he thinks the Olympic champion is using the 60-meter category as a launchpad to improve his starts in the 100-meter race. Thus, it is evident that, like always, Noah Lyles is once again the center of attraction. Now, it will be interesting to see how things pan out for the Florida native in the future.