Team USA track and field star Noah Lyles explained his controversial decision to keep his COVID diagnosis a secret at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Lyles, 27, tested positive two days before he was scheduled to race in the men’s 200m final in August, an event where he ultimately finished in third place.
“I can’t tell anybody,” the Olympian said in season 2 of Netflix’s Sprint, which dropped Wednesday, November 13. “I don’t wanna give my comPetition that idea that, you know, they could beat me now because I’m sick.”
Lyles added, “I want to go in with everybody believing that this is Noah, and this is the Noah that you faced every other year.”
Junelle Bromfield, Lyles’ fiancée who comPeted for Jamaica at the 2024 Games, recalled how she received the news about Lyles’ diagnosis.
“He text[ed] me, ‘I have COVID,’” she said in Sprint. “Then I’m like, ‘Oh, gosh.’
Bromfield, 26, — who got engaged to Lyles in October — said “everything just went spiraling out in that moment,” and she asked the Team USA star how he planned on handling the situation.
“I will make sure not to tell the media,” Lyles texted her. “Or anything.”
The positive test came less than two days after Lyles won gold in the men’s 100m, and he said it didn’t take long for him to start feeling the symptoms.
“Of course I’m like, ‘Dang.’ Like, ‘God, what’s going on?’” Lyles lamented. “I thought we prepped, you know? I thought I had prepared for everything.”
While Lyles took minor safety precautions — like telling the Netflix camera crew not to get too close to him at one point — he said there was no doubt that he was still going to comPete.
“I’m always under the belief that God does things for a purpose and a reason,” Lyles explained. “I have been sick before. I’ve fought through sickness. I’d be very upset if I didn’t at least take the first chance of saying, ‘Maybe I can run through this.’”
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“I got third. Huh,” Lyles said with a laugh. “I got third with COVID. I’m pretty amazing.”
The second season of Sprint is available to stream now on Netflix.
