Noah Lyles reflects on the Paris Olympics and trips to the Penn Relays, and hints at a potential race with Tyreek Hill

Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles overcame many obstacles to claim the “Fastest Man in the World” title.

Lyles’ life has been an uphill battle — from growing up with asthma, dyslexia, and attention deficit disorder, to running the 200-meter race with COVID-19 at the Paris Olympics and grieving the death of his coach after the Olympic trials. He credits his success towards a lifelong journey of lessons and battles.

Lyles recently visited the Comcast Campus in Philadelphia on a day to honor the Olympic athletes. As one of the 16 Comcast Team USA sponsored athletes, he had a lot to say about his Olympic experience and the people who inspired him in his journey.

» READ MORE: American Noah Lyles wins Olympic 100 by five-thousandths of a second

A: It’s a conflicting battle, honestly. You have such pride growing up American and you want to win and you want to add to that medal count, but at the same time we go through our own struggle in life — whether that’s being a Black male or being someone who is just trying to find their own identity in life. That’s always going to be part of being an American. Hopefully, as I’m able to represent us I’ll be able to bring light on both subjects, and not only educate, but also push the boundaries on what it means to be an athlete and human being.

A: I remember my days when I was watching track and field with my dad — he ran during the 90s — it was all about the U.S. bringing home all the medals, especially in the 100-meter race. But then it was just Jamaican, and Jamaican, and Jamaican. I was like OK, we need to bring this back home. This needs to be ours. It was almost like a Thanos moment, if you want something done right then you need to do it yourself.

A: I knew I wasn’t 100 percent. I knew I was going into an uphill battle. Despite that, I was going to try anyway because tomorrow is never promised. While trying to make sure everyone else’s Olympic moment was not ruined, I decided that I was going to go out there and protect myself and them and give it my all.

A: It’s probably one of my favorites. It’s so crazy. The last Olympics, I got bronze and I was so defeated and then this year I grabbed the gold in the 100-meter but again grabbed the bronze in the 200-meter and that was the hardest medal I ever had to fight for. I felt so accomplished because I felt like it was only something that I could truly do.

» READ MORE: Noah Lyles’ super-close 100-meter win is among our top 10 moments and stories from the U.S. in the 2024 Paris Olympics

A: It was constantly a fight but I’m used to battles. My whole life has been a battle, dealing with asthma, dealing with dyslexia, dealing with ADD, going through the school system, finding my own path and being told that I wouldn’t do the impossible. It’s always going to be a fight.

A: If I look back now I would have always said ‘what if.’ I would have always thought about ‘why didn’t I try,’ or ‘why didn’t I fight harder,’ because it was hard or because I was scared. People say once you get sick you have an excuse. I don’t want an excuse. I want to be able to put my best foot forward. Maybe there’s going to be someone out there who also catches COVID-19 at the Olympics and they’re going to think it’s over. But because they saw my story they decided to fight through this. And maybe they’ll be better than me and get gold.

A: I can’t credit it to one thing. It’s a lifelong journey of lessons and battles and overcoming hurdles. There have been tons of setbacks but of course I have an amazing team that I put together. I have great faith in what I do and faith in God. I feel like every time I’ve needed to go up against another challenge, he’s given me somebody who has the tools to get me to the next level.

A: Oh, I knew that since the day I started playing on the playground. When you never get picked to be ‘it’ in tag, that’s a pretty good sign. And when you play cops and robbers with the whole neighborhood and you’re never a cop and always winning, that’s another big sign that you’re fast.

A: It was pretty great but it was also pretty nerve-racking. It’s one thing when you know they’re going to show up to the Olympics because you know they’re going to watch. But going back home, everyone says they’re going to watch but it’s another thing for them to actually come out and spend their time to celebrate me. So, that was really heartfelt because they didn’t have to come out there and do that.

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A: It was huge. I remember when me and my brother showed up and told him we wanted to be Olympians he didn’t back away from the goal. He didn’t say maybe we should just win districts first. He said OK, I get it. He taught himself to keep up with our talent. It’s not that he only gave us attention, he gave the whole team attention. I watched him be a father to the fatherless and be a mentor to the ones ready to give up. He was a man who fought his own demons but was ready to fight for others. He was a big inspiration for me and I will always be thankful for him.

A: Every memory with him was a fun memory. There were times when we took drives up to Philadelphia for Penn Relays. He would take us out to eat after practice at this local pizza shop, they would give us meals on the house and we would always discuss our plans of world domination. The apartment I lived in was actually the same apartment complex he lived in as a child. There were always so many connections we had and I never really noticed it until having conversations like this.

A: I’m always going to talk about marketing. I’m also going to say it’s not always just about the performances, you have to do more than just perform. You look at a lot of other sports and they’re doing media, they’re doing press conferences, they’re doing meet-and-greets and all the extra pieces like magazine covers and photoshoots. I feel that our sport is so focused on the win, we haven’t gotten the idea of the other pieces to help us grow and interact with the world.

A: It’s very nice to hear. Bolt told me the same thing. It’s nice to not have everyone criticize you constantly and call you cocky and arrogant.

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A: I had so many commercials going on at one time — TIDE, Comcast, VISA — I remember from March to April I was doing two photoshoots and one commercial a week. I know that there aren’t many athletes in track and field doing that but I had this idea that I was going to dominate the televisions as I was running. If I wasn’t on TV actually racing and doing my antics then there was going to be a commercial of me playing. That was the mindset of this Olympics. I had a gut feeling that I knew I was going to win and I needed to represent that on all fronts.

A: I was probably about eight years old. I watched my first episode of Dragon Ball Z on Toonami in my friends basement. It was an episode of the Cell Games and we were mesmerized by the show. From there, I fell deeper and deeper into the hole. We found manga in the school library. Every day I was doing book reports on manga. I was trying to constantly find places to watch anime. It’s not as easy as it now where I can just go on Netflix, I was on third-party sites that were giving me viruses.

A: Favorite anime of all time is Fullmetal Alchemist. I feel it has an amazing story. I love the ideology on so many levels. It talks about different races, racism, it talks about the price of a soul, what would you do for your dreams, what’s the limit. It is such a complete story that I feel like everyone should eventually watch at least once. It really makes you think. Current anime is Solo Leveling. I watched the first episode and then went to read all of the manga before the third episode came out.

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A: We’re in conversations. It’s not impossible. It’s more feasible than I think a lot of people believe it to be. But, if it’s done then it’ll be done on the highest level. I’m talking this is going to be boxing style with undercards, betting, big sponsors, Vegas, LA, Miami something that will bring in a big crowd with TV production. It’s not just going to be in some backyard or some random track. This needs to be the highest level because that’s how America is. When we do something in entertainment, we do it to the highest level.

A: Oh yeah. I’m thinking Brisbane [location of the 2032 Olympics].