Have you heard about this Noah Lyles guy? After the 2024 Olympics, you’d have to be living under a rock to have not. The brash American sprinter is the sort of athlete every sport clamors for: charismatic, loud, and so uber-talented that no matter how much shit he talks, he’s able to back it up. And make no mistake, Lyles has been talking his shit for years. He’s taken jabs at other sprinters, including American rival Fred Kerley, but really made headlines in 2023 for claiming that whichever NBA team won the Finals couldn’t claim the moniker of “world champions” given the comparatively limited geography their competition covers. Sportswriters took note, as did a number of high-profile NBA players. The headlines followed.
Regardless of which side of the “world champions” argument you fall on, Lyles’ ultimate goal in making the statement worked: it got people watching. Track and field has been in need of a north star since the retirement of the GOAT Usain Bolt. Sprinters like Sha’Carri Richardson and Lyles have rushed to fill the void, and their efforts are working (so is the hit Netflix series SPRINT, which looks to be doing to track what Drive to Survive has done for Formula 1). Eyes were back on the track in a big way at this year’s games, whether it was to cheer on their heroes or pray on Lyles’s downfall—the sprinter was rather humorously trending on X the morning of the 100m final because a legion of NBA fans seemingly woke up to watch the 5 a.m. qualifying heat, in which Lyles placed second. The trash talk was relentless, though unfortunately misplaced. A few hours later, Lyles won gold in the photo finish to end all photo finishes.
Amidst a barrage of thank-yous, trash talk, and adulation for his peers in the sport, Lyles dropped a line that made the rounds in a big way: He, an Adidas athlete, wants a signature sneaker. Not a pair of track spikes (“There’s no money in [those],” he says), but a proper signature shoe. After the 2024 he’s had, Adidas would be crazy to not oblige the request.
