A phone call with his therapist after a worrying semi-final helped propel Noah Lyles to the top of the Olympic podium on Sunday, after years of rebuilding his mental health to reach the pinnacle of his sport.
The American put on the performance of a lifetime to take the 100 metres gold by five-thousandths of a second in 9.79, in a blistering final where a 9.91 from Jamaican Oblique Seville was only good enough to finish last.
Seville had crossed the line ahead of Lyles in their semi-final, and the US sprinter said he needed to get into the right mindset for his medal race.
"I wouldn't say nervous – I'd say I was extremely curious as to what was going to happen. That's how me and my therapist phrase it. I’m curious as to what I’m going to do, how am I going to pull this off," he told reporters.
"I came in third-fastest from the semis. I'm like 'This is going to be serious, this is not going to be easy'. And I had said OK, my therapist said 'You need to let go, you need to relax and you need to be yourself'."
Lyles was familiar with all the highs and lows of his sport long before he arrived in Paris, and has publicly discussed the work he put into his mental health to rebound from the pit of depression he found himself in three years ago.
The three-times 200m world champion failed even to qualify for the shorter sprint at the US Olympic trials in 2021, and rebuilt himself - body and mind - with the singular goal of becoming the fastest man on earth.
"I did this against the best of the best, on the biggest stage, with the biggest pressure," Lyles said. "And I wasn't even entered in the 100 in 2021. You know, here I am, first Olympics in the 100, going around now the Olympic champion."
Lyles will compete next in the 200m as he bids for a rare Olympic sprint double, with the opening rounds set for Monday.
