“Got to Get”: Noah Lyles Chasing Usain Bolt’s Record States His Reason For Near Impossible Feat

For Noah Lyles, what counts is the legacy you leave behind. The reigning 100m world champion just secured his second spot in Team USA for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics a couple of hours ago. While justifiably, his elation is well-placed, he seems to have a bigger objective in mind that keeps pushing him every day.

In a YouTube video uploaded by Citius Mag earlier today, Noah’s post-race interview underscores his motivation to stay on top of the food chain. Claiming that he wants to be “the greatest” in the sport, Lyles revealed that he will have to achieve two major feats to rise to that rank. An Olympic gold and a world record: the two prime objectives that are helping him keep his head in the game, said Noah.

“As I aim for being the greatest it’s just something that I got to get or I want to get“, the 26-year-old said in the interview with a rather calm demeanor that should also be a message to his opponents for the Paris Games. With Lyles chasing the thought of claiming Usain Bolt’s throne as his own, his ambitions might be the one thing that will determine his legacy in the coming days.

“I think when everybody starts to get to the top, they start to realize, ‘Alright what do I got to do to be considered the greatest when I leave the sport’,” Noah said in the interview when the interviewer asked him what is the future he envisions for himself. With that in mind, Lyles highlighted the above-mentioned feats that still elude him to this day as his final checkpoints on the way to immortality in the track world.

Months ago, Noah had stated that he would be flying to Paris with eyes on the Jamaican icon’s seat. He said that he will be aiming to haul gold in all four events (100m, 200m, 4x100m, and 4x400m), to establish himself as one of the greatest sprinters of all time. If he manages to follow up on his words, Noah will undoubtedly go down in history, as this feat is something Bolt also doesn’t have the boasting rights to despite everything the latter has achieved. However, many would argue that Noah is on the right path to materializing his dreams.

Noah Lyles hasn’t left any stone unturned

In 2023, Lyles won every single men’s 200m event he participated in, while also winning the 100m gold at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. His momentum carried over to 2024 and he won major 100m races at the Bermuda Grand Prix and NYC Grand Prix earlier this year. He also won the men’s 150m race at the Atlanta City Games and dismissed all of his opponents as a threat to his 200m dreams at the Paris Olympics. In that event, Lyles also managed to record a massive win over Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, who had previously beaten the USA’s Fred Kerley and Christian Coleman.

In the semifinal race of the 200m itself, Noah managed to dethrone American track icon Michael Johnson as he broke the latter’s nearly three-decade-old record to produce the current meet record. Considering these facts, it would seem like Noah isn’t too far away from showing the world that he means business on the grandest stage of them all. But will he be able to? We’ll have to wait just a while longer to have the answer for ourselves.