US track and field star Carl Lewis has pleaded that Noah Lyles be given some leeway as he heads into the Paris 2024 Olympics as a hot sprint favourite with a potential eye on four gold medals.
Lyles added another gold to his trophy cabinet by anchoring the US team to victory in the menâs 4x100m on Sunday at the World Athletics relays in Nassau, where American quartets won four of five events raced as Olympic qualifiers.
The 26-year-old ensured he would be going to Paris with a target on his back after winning golds in the 100, 200 and 4x100m relay at last yearâs world championships in Budapest.
He followed up with two silvers at the World Indoors in Glasgow in February, firstly beaten by teammate Christian Coleman in the 60m and then as a controversial last-minute member of the 4x400m relay team.
That call-up received wide criticism, with allegations of favouritism levelled at Lyles, even from teammate Fred Kerley.
But Lewis, one of the most decorated Olympian athletes with nine Summer Games golds, said that should now be treated as water under the bridge.
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âI hope that he ignores it and moves on. All Noahâs doing is what youâre asking. Heâs a good kid, heâs going to do very well,â Lewis told a small group of journalists in Nassau.
âI donât have a problem with someone saying âI want to win another gold medal for Americaâ. I donât want him to get bogged down by silliness. It really is silly. Itâs not fair. He doesnât deserve it, let him do his thing,â he said.
Among Lewisâ nine Olympic medals was a tally of four at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles when he won both sprints, was a member of the winning 4x100m relay team and also claimed victory in the long jump.
Thoughts of Lyles having a tilt at emulating a four-gold haul in Paris left Lewis musing.
âTrust me, itâs hard enough to win three, period!â he said. âItâs really, really hard to do it. Let him focus on that. And if the relay pans out, that could be wonderful for the sport.â
Open field in the 100m
But Lewis warned that recent changing faces in the 100m championâs chair meant there would be no shoo-in for victory in the blue riband event.
âAnyone can win it!â said the American who won a second 100m Olympic gold in Seoul in 1988 after Ben Johnson tested positive for doping, as well as three world titles (1983, 1987 — again promoted due to Johnsonâs doping — 1991).
While Lyles won in Budapest last year, Kerley won at the Eugene worlds the year before, Italyâs Marcell Jacobs claimed the Olympic title and Coleman the 2019 world championships in Doha.
There was no sight of Coleman or Kerley in Nassau, but Jacobs joined Lyles in action at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium in the capital of the Bahamas.
âYou want to be on the team for the Olympics, you should be here,â the outspoken Lewis said.
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As for Lyles, the 62-year-old said, âWell, heâs here and he should be. I think he understands it. Heâs running technically the best right now. Thatâs why heâs winning and heâs doing a good job. I think the sport needs someone to be dominant… because the public likes to attach to someone.â
âWhen they win theyâre happy, when they lose theyâre sad. They want to go with the emotions of people. Right now thereâs no emotion to it, itâs just like, whoâs going to win,â he added.
Lewis, one of only six Olympic athletes who won a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Games — in his case the long jump — also warned against weight of expectation on a single athlete raising track and fieldâs profile in general.
âItâs much bigger than him and I donât think itâs fair to be it on athletes,â he said of Lyles, using Jamaican sprinting legend Usain Bolt as a comparison. Usain did a tremendous job but he didnât grow the sport,â he said.
âAs much as he did, as big as he was, he still didnât grow the sport, sport financially went down during his tenure,â he concluded.
Source Agencies
