Noah Lyles, The Clock Doesn’t Lie

This is a feature by Cathal Dennehy on Noah Lyles and the newest paradigm change that the 3 time World Outdoor gold medalist and WIC gold (relay) and silver (60m) has experienced.

Noah Lyles, The Clock Doesn’t Lie,

by Cathal Dennehy

The clock doesn’t lie, and neither do his gym numbers. As the focus turns to the outdoor season, both currently paint a very bright picture for Noah Lyles.

Last year, he ran a personal best of 6.51 for 60m indoors, and six months later, he lowered his 100m personal best to 9.83 to win the world title in Budapest.

This year, he has run 6.43 for 60m, a reduction of 0.08. If that first part of his race is all that’s improved, it suggests Lyles will be a 9.75 man outdoors, though the 26-year-old hasn’t just strengthened his weaknesses. He’s also improved his strengths.

“We’re attacking the gym a lot more, getting stronger, because biomechanically you can hit the ground in the right spot, but if you don’t have enough power, you’re not going to go anywhere,” says his coach, Lance Brauman. “We need to increase his power output, and that’s what we’re doing right now, and it’s working.”

How much has Lyles improved in the gym?

“Significantly,” says Brauman. “He’s finally really excited about lifting. He’d always do it, but he was never excited about it. Now he’s excited about it, and that changes every aspect.”

Lyles did not get what he wanted in Glasgow, making do with silver in the 60m, clocking 6.44 behind Christian Coleman’s 6.41. But he does not reflect on it with disappointment, aware of the significance of that medal, that time, and what it signals for outdoors.

“I’m OK with it,” he says. “There’s definitely been a lot of medals, even gold, that I haven’t kept, but I’m keeping this one. I feel like every time I look at that medal, I’ll be like, ‘That was the moment that everything changed in my career and went to a whole ‘nother level.’”

With a 6.43 to win the US title and a 6.44 in Glasgow, what 100m time does Lyles believe will convert?

“Probably like 9.70,” he says. “Maybe faster.”

As former world 200m champion and NBC track announcer Ato Boldon put it, Lyles learning to start races in such fashion has made him “a problem” for the rest of the world. After…