Noah Lyles on Why He Chose Track & Field As a Career: “Becoming an Olympian Was Like Getting a Driver’s License”

There’s a lot of pressure on Noah Lyles right now. Even if the 26-year-old doesn’t show it on his face, the 2024 Paris Olympics has him toiling on the track every day to up his game. The top-rated men’s 200m runner is eyeing Usain Bolt’s throne, and even the Jamaican thinks the possibilities aren’t entirely unfounded. While Lyles stands on the brink of Olympic history, it should be worth remembering that his journey to stardom didn’t begin overnight.

Today, the six-time world champ is among the most notable faces in the global track and field community. However, if his early childhood decision had panned out well, things could have been very different for the five-time Diamond League gold medalist. He recently unfurled some tidbits about his vocation of the Jimmy Fallon Show.

Noah Lyles eased into track running instead of frog-diving into it

Noah Lyles recently appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to talk about his plans for the upcoming Paris Games, and also share how he got into track running. “If I ran at a school zone, I’d get a ticket,“ joked Lyles about his current speed (26 miles/hr), trying to break the ice, as seen in the video shared by NBC. He also dropped a massive truth bomb when he revealed that he was putting 300 pounds of force on the starting blocks when he starts to run. Keeping aside the jokes and trivia, Lyles also talked about how sprinting got his attention in the first place.

Noah Lyles confessed that his parents, who were also runners themselves, weren’t the reason he took up running. “I got in by high jumping,” said Lyles, and how his brother Josephus’ childhood tantrum led their parents to give them more time to try out the track. He went on to reminisce about how watching the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony got his brother to think, “I think we can make the Olympics.”

He further elaborated how growing up nearby to the Clark family, a family of Olympians, also helped him and his sibling to fall in love with sprinting. While his brother is yet to record a victory over Lyles, the latter now stands with his quivering heart with hopes of clinching his maiden gold medal on the grandest stage, and he’s not afraid to trash-talk his way to the top, either.

Lyles adding the final touches to his Paris preparations

In recent weeks, competition has become fierce. Keeping up with the challenges, Noah Lyles has also racked up several victories across the world over the last few months. From the Bahamas Relays to the World Indoor Championships and the Racer’s Grand Prix, Lyles has never been too far away from the podium. While his latest defeat at the hands of Jamaica’s Oblique Seville raised a lot of eyebrows, Lyles instead claimed the result would have been different if the gunman hadn’t messed up at the start of the race. However, the dreamer isn’t one to be bogged down by one small snag along the way.

Ahead of last month’s Atlanta City Games, Lyles made it clear that in the 200m race, there’s no one to challenge him right now. He proved his boasts emphatically hours later by defeating Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, who had previously beaten both Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek. With Lyles aiming to usurp Bolt’s high throne in the most spectacular way possible, it remains to be seen if his grand plans can be executed in the best way possible, or if he once again falls short of a dream finish when it really matters.