What a difference three years can make! Back in 2021, despite snagging the world title in the 200m in 2019, Noah Lyles hit a snag at the Tokyo Games. In the Tokyo 200-meter final, Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse won gold with a time of 19.62 seconds. Kenny Bednarek of the U.S. took silver with 19.68 seconds, and Noah Lyles won bronze with 19.74 seconds. Additionally, he didn’t even make the US team for the 100-meter. Fast forward to today, and Lyles is not just back in the game—he’s dominating it.

He’s the 100-meter and 200-meter 2023 world champion and the top American heading into the Paris Olympics with the world lead in the 200m. Talk about a comeback! But Lyles isn’t shy about the fact that he’s still feeling the sting of that bronze medal. ” That bronze still burns a hole in my chest,” admitted the 27-year-old Lyles to the Daily Mail. He’s even planning to carry that bronze medal with him as he chases gold at the Stade de France and says, “Just to remind me this is not the color we are coming back with.”

After winning bronze in the Tokyo 200-meter dash, Noah Lyles called the medal “boring” because he came to the Olympics to win gold. He’d set a big goal to snag three golds, but the world—and his life—changed drastically before the Games. He opened up to the global audience, sharing his struggles in the hope of helping others. “I was depressed”, Lyles admitted, revealing he was coming off antidepressants due to weight gain and a lot of personal issues.

Watching his Tokyo race later, he was shocked by how distant he seemed from himself, saying, “I don’t know who that is but it’s not Noah”. His struggles go way back—bullying, ADHD, asthma, dyslexia—and 2020 was especially tough with the pandemic, postponed Olympics, and the impact of George Floyd’s death. Lyles had started taking antidepressants in 2020, but they messed with his training and emotions.

He stopped taking them before the Olympics and then had to deal with even more setbacks, like his massage therapist getting sick, which made recovery harder. Despite everything, Lyles fought through it, and his raw reaction after Tokyo was a real look into his journey. So how did Noah Lyles manage to turn things around?

Noah Lyles’ epic comeback from Tokyo tears to Paris cheers

These days, Noah Lyles is everywhere—known for his bold comments, making appearances on The Tonight Show, flexing his main character energy in the Netflix documentary Sprint, and gracing the cover of this month’s Time magazine. He opened up to the Daily Mail, revealing his secret to newfound happiness. It turns out it’s all about therapy. At 26, Lyles has two therapists: one for sports and another for his personal life beyond the track. He admitted that there’s still a lingering fear that depression might come back, but he counters that worry by focusing on how much better he feels now. He sees those fears as just negativity trying to drag him down.

Looking back, Lyles believes the pain from Tokyo was crucial for his growth. In 2022, he defended his 200-meter world title in Eugene, celebrating by ripping open his US vest like the Incredible Hulk. A year later in Budapest, he became the first man since Usain Bolt to complete the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay “3Peat” at a World Championships.

At the 2024 US Olympic trials, Lyles proudly pointed out how he’d gone from second-to-last three years ago to winning the 100-meter finals. He reflected to reporters, “If I didn’t get that third place in Tokyo, I wouldn’t have had that desire. I wouldn’t have had that fire burning. I wouldn’t have accomplished what I have accomplished in the past”. Now that Noah Lyles is gunning for four gold medals at the Paris Olympics, what do you think about him bringing his Tokyo bronze as a reminder? How do you feel about his growth over the past three years? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!