Noah Lyles Ran The 200m With COVID And Got Taken Off The Track In A Wheelchair After Getting Bronze

Noah Lyles entered the Paris Olympics with one goal: Win a gold medal in the 100 and 200 meters. Lyles, the American sprinter who has endeared himself to fans thanks to his big personality, did the first half of that last week when he narrowly crossed the finish line ahead of Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson.

Considered the weaker of his two events, Lyles winning a gold in the 100 meant that winning the Olympic double was truly on. However, on Thursday evening at Stade de France, Lyles finished third in the 200 for the second straight Olympics, finishing behind teammate Kenny Bednarek and gold medal winner Letsile Tebogo of Botswana in a stunning result.

After the race, Lyles was clearly gassed and nearly fell to the track while calling for water. He was tended to by the medical staff and eventually taken off the track in a wheelchair to get further medical attention underneath. Lyles, who deals with asthma, had been wearing a mask prior to his 200m heats, and NBC’s Lewis Johnson spoke with his mother after the race and learned that Lyles had tested positive for COVID two days ago after his 100m win.

Lyles opted to continue running for the double, and it does explain why he didn’t look like he had his normal finishing kick — and that he could run a 19.7 while sick is quite impressive. Hopefully Lyles will make a full and speedy recovery, but it was a bit of a scary scene on the track when he was clearly struggling to catch his breath.

UPDATE: Lyles came back out and spoke with Johnson for an on-air interview and said he wasn’t sure how this would impact his availability for the relay teams, and that he’d leave that up to the Team USA staff.