Noah Riles, 26, will wear the armband of the No. 1 spot at the US Trials to try to win the men’s 100 meters at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Liles won the men’s 100-meter final in a personal best time of 9.83 seconds at the USA Track & Field Trials for the Paris Olympics on Thursday (Aug. 24) at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, USA.
He was joined by Kenny Bednarek (9.87) and Fred Curley (9.88), who qualified for Paris with the top three finishers.
“Three years ago I was ‘second from behind’ (seventh) in the 100-meter final at the Tokyo Olympic Trials,” he told the Associated Press and AFP after the race. Today I was a perfect first,” he said, adding that “I can now look to tomorrow” and set his sights on gold in Paris.
Liles made waves last year when he wrote on social media, “I’m going to run 9.65, 19.10.”
“Nothing has changed,” he said on the day he confirmed his place in the men’s 100 meters in Paris, “you set a goal and you run towards it.”
The world record for the men’s 100 meters is 9.58 seconds, held by retired Usain Bolt (Jamaica). The American record is 9.69 by Tyson Gay.
Liles acknowledged that Bolt’s time will be difficult to beat, but he is motivated to break the American record.
In the 200 meters, he was confident that he could beat Bolt’s world record of 19.19 seconds.
His personal best in the men’s 200 meters is 19.31 seconds.
He won back-to-back 200 meters titles at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and 2022 in Eugene.
However, he was not considered a favorite in the 100 meters and finished third in the 200 meters at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“If I had won the 200m in Tokyo, I might have stagnated,” said Liles, “but the disappointing result in Tokyo fueled my desire.”
At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Liles won gold in the men’s 100-, 200-, and 400-meter relays.
It had been eight years since Bolt won a triple at the World Championships in Beijing in 2015.
Now that he’s established himself as Bolt’s heir apparent, he’s looking to win his first individual Olympic gold medal.
“He could go for a quadruple in Paris, competing in the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter relays, as well as the 1,600-meter relay,” says the Associated Press.
As a youngster, Liles spent more time in the hospital than on the track.
She suffered from asthma as a child, and in high school she was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia.
In August 2020, after she became a famous sprinter, she admitted to being on antidepressants, saying, “It takes a lot of courage to say you’re sick, that you’re sick. It’s necessary for treatment. For people who are going through something similar to me, I will always say, ‘I’m sick. I’m getting treatment.”
This “Lyle’s own narrative,” along with the colorful ceremonies, has brought Lyle into the spotlight. 토토