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Tokyo bronze medalist Noah Lyles is focused on winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 as he races through a busy outdoor season.
Lyles was sensational in the indoor season. He opened his account at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, winning a gold medal with a personal best timing in the 60m sprint. The American, who clocked 6.44s at the New Balance Grand Prix, bettered the timing in the same month at the USATF Indoor Championships, winning the 60m dash in 6.43s to beat world record holder Christian Coleman.
Strong performances in the indoor season boosted the claims of the reigning 100m and 200m world champion. Lyles repeatedly made claims about going all out at the Paris Olympics 2024, aiming to win four gold medals, a feat no sprinter has ever achieved, not even the great Usain Bolt.
Noah Lyles opened his outdoor season at the Tom Jones Memorial and clocked 10.01s to win the 100m clash. A week later, the 26-year-old featured in his second 100m event, and won the clash at the USATF Bermuda Grand Prix in a season-best timing of 9.96s.
Speaking with NBC after the race, Lyles has asserted that he was all focused on winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. He has admitted it is a busy season ahead, and is taking it step by step to make the Olympic team first. But the gold medal was ‘still ringing’ in his head.
"Ever since indoors, I've been thinking about it (gold medal). Even though I push it little further back because we got to go to the Olympic trials and make the team first, and that's still ringing in my head," he claimed.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Noah Lyles clocked 19.74s to win the bronze medal. While he is yet to feature in the 200m event this season, the 26-year-old is focused on improving his 100m dash, which he is relatively slower in compared to 200m. He, anyway, is looking to sweep the whole sprinting gold medal tally at the Paris Olympics.
“I'm serious" - Noah Lyles on his claim of sweeping the sprinting gold medals at the Paris Olympics
The closest ever to reach the feat of winning four gold medals at a single Olympic Games was Florence Griffith Joyner, who won three gold and one silver medal at the 1988 Seol Games. But Noah Lyles is ready to rewrite the history.
"I'm serious," Lyles told Reuters. "I just ran the 4x400m in Glasgow (Indoor world championships), and I felt that was definitely one of my ways of saying that this isn't a joke."
While many believed the 26-year-old was doing it for the headlines, Noah Lyles says, he says he is going all out, with full force.
"A lot of people thought I was just doing it for headlines. But, no. I’m full force going in," he declared.
