Noah Lyles Builds His Olympic Legend With 200m Bronze Medal Despite Having COVID & Asthma

After his stunning, photo-finish gold medal in the 100m , though, the deck was stacked against Lyles medically entering Thursday's 200m final. Hoping to pull off the coveted Olympic sprinter's double, Lyles ultimately fell short, but once it was revealed after the race that he had COVID, it was quite the stunning achievement to reach the podium with the bronze. https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/1821616436399190039 https://twitter.com/TheTylerDragon/status/1821621286272963053 https://twitter.com/YahooSports/status/1821621625021985154 What makes Lyles' bronze medal even more impressive is the fact that he deals with asthma already. As somebody who's personally experienced some pretty bad bouts with COVID — the virus seems to impact most everyone's immune system a little differently — it's hard to fathom rallying from that in a matter of two days to function in daily life, given how much havoc it can wreak on the lungs. It's unclear what sort of symptoms Lyles was experiencing, but at the very least, he was behind the 8-ball due to his preexisting asthma. The mildest form of COVID I'm familiar with that isn't symptom-free is congestion that causes a loss of taste. Trying to sprint as fast as you possibly can with any form of that "milder" COVID and asthma? Fuhgeddaboudit. For a little added context, Lyles publicly posted about his asthma and other adversity earlier on in the Summer Olympics. https://twitter.com/LylesNoah/status/1820246016295080034 Many were giving Lyles grief for his assertion that NBA players aren't technically "world champions" when the win the title. Those critiques quieted down when he won 100m gold. Now people are calling him selfish for running despite the potential he had to spread COVID. Not to give the flu and COVID a misguided one-to-one comparison, but I don't recall a lot of folks blasting Michael Jordan back in the day for his "Flu Game," which is a huge staple in his legacy/GOAT case. There's also plenty of "he only announced it now because he didn't win, AKA... an excuse" commentary out there, with some calling the wheelchair exit reminiscent of Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce in 2008. https://twitter.com/nut_history/status/1821616524077207792 Anyway, Friday is the final for the men's 4x100 relay, and I'd be surprised if Lyles was still able to run in that. Hopefully he recovers quickly and fully from his bout with COVID, because it seems particularly dangerous for him.