At 27, Lyles clinched the 100m final by a mere 5,000th of a second against Jamaican rival Kishane Thompson, bouncing back from a winless streak at the 2024 Paris Games. His focus now shifts to the 200m and the 4x100m relay events, and he couldn't help but engage in a bit of thrash-talk .
Lyles is gunning for at least two Olympic golds in Paris, aiming to add the 200m to his collection.
Despite winning his first-round heat on Monday with a time of 20.19 seconds, slower than fellow Americans Erriyon Knighton and Kenny Bednarek, he remains undeterred.
The three-time 200m world champion will compete in Wednesday's semi-finals, hoping to secure a spot in Thursday's final. He boldly dismissed teammate Bednarek's chances, proclaiming, "That man [Bednarek] ain't winning. Nobody's winning... when I come off that turn, they will be depressed,".
Lyles, ever confident, has set his sights on surpassing Usain Bolt's records in 2023. "I know that I'm going to break it," he asserted.
Lyles also reflected on human nature, saying, "The second most popular, favorite hobby of humans after watching somebody achieve greatness is watching them fail."
"People love to watch people fail. They just do. I don't know why. It's just if somebody says they want to do something great, someone's right there next to say they can't do it."
"I can give zero cares about what other people think. Because they don't know me, they don't know my story, they don't know what I do, they don't know how hard I work, how talented I am. But I know."
Lyles hasn't lost a 200m race since he took bronze at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. Ten of the top 20 times set in the 200m in the last three years have been set by Lyles.
"I'm going to motivate myself regardless," Lyles added. "I'm going to win regardless. I didn't need a rival at worlds to run 19.3, because there was nobody close to me when that happened."
Lyles' confident nature is clear to see, after antagonizing NBA fans last year by questioning: "world champions of what? " - quotes that made him some enemies from his own country. Fans have taken to social media claiming they're ready to "hate watch" Lyles in the 200m in hopes he loses.
Phoenix Suns and Team USA basketball star Devin Booker, who was at Lyles' 100m final win on Sunday alongside his teammates, reaffirmed his disagreement with the sprinter's comments. "I still don't agree with the comment," Booker recently stated after Lyles took first in the 100m run.
"I feel like all the best talent in the world is in the NBA, and this is coming from an Olympic gold medalist (who believes) that being an NBA champion is probably harder to do."
For all the latest news straight to your inbox, sign up for our FREE newsletters here .
Most Popular
Comments / 0