American track and field star Carl Lewis has implored Noah Lyles, who heads into the Paris Olympics as a hot-sprint favorite for four gold medals, to be given some leeway.
Lyles added another gold medal to his trophy cabinet on Sunday when he led Team USA to victory in the men's 4×100 meters at the World Athletics Relays in Nassau. The American quartet won four of the five Olympic qualifying events.
The 26-year-old is confident he will go to Paris with a goal on his back after winning gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at last year's World Championships in Budapest.
He won two silver medals at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in February, but was first beaten in the 60m by teammate Christian Coleman, then in the controversial 4x400m relay team. Participated as an immediate member.
The call-up received widespread criticism, with teammate Fred Curley raising suspicions of favoritism toward Lyles.
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But Lewis, who won nine gold medals at the Summer Games and is one of the most decorated Olympians, said this should now be water under the bridge.
“I hope he ignores it and moves on. Everything Noah is doing is what you want. He's a good kid, he's going to do very well.” Lewis told a small group of journalists in Nassau.
“It doesn't matter if someone says, 'I want to win another gold medal for America.'
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“I don't want him to get mired in stupidity, which is really stupid.
“That's not fair. He doesn't deserve it. Let him do what he has to do.”
Lewis's nine Olympic medals include four at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where he was a member of the winning teams in the sprint and 4×100 meter relay, and also won the long jump. .
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Lewis wondered if he was trying to emulate Lyles, who won four gold medals in Paris.
“Believe me, winning three games is hard enough,” he said.
“That's a really, really hard thing to do. I want him to focus on that. And if the relay goes well, it's going to be great for the sport.”
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But Lewis warned that the recent change in the face of the 100m champion's chair meant there was no shot-in for victory in the blue ribbon event.
“Anybody can win!'' After Ben Johnson tested positive for doping, he won his second gold medal in the 100 meters at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and won three world titles (1983, 1987–Johnson's said the American, who won another promotion due to doping (in 1991).
Lyles won Budapest last year, while Curly won the Eugene World Championships the year before, Italy's Marcel Jacobs won the Olympic title and Coleman won the 2019 Doha World Championships.
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Coleman and Curley were not present in Nassau, but Jacobs played with Lyles at Thomas A. Robinson Stadium in the Bahamas' capital.
“If you want to be on the Olympic team, you should be here,” said the outspoken Lewis.
As for Lyles, the 62-year-old said: “Well, he's here and he's supposed to be. I think he understands that. He's technically at his best right now. That's why he's winning and he's doing a good job.”
“I think this sport needs someone to be dominant…because the public likes to be attached to someone.
“If they win, they're happy, if they lose, they're sad. They want to go along with people's emotions. There's no emotion there right now. It's just a feeling of who will win.”
One of only six Olympians to win gold medals in the same individual event (in his case the long jump) in four consecutive Olympics, Lewis is known for his efforts to raise the profile of track and field in general. He warned about the weight of expectations. .
“He's so much bigger than him and I don't think it's fair to put that on an athlete,” he said of Lyles, comparing him to Jamaican sprinting legend Usain Bolt.
“Usain did a great job, but he couldn't grow the sport,” he said. “No matter how accomplished he was and how great he was, he was still unable to grow the sport, and the sport declined financially during his tenure.”