Near the end of his favorite race, Lyles had another surprise in store for him: Someone was with him. Lyles often turns the final stretch of the 200 meters into a crushing victory, and at this U.S. Olympic Trials he needed all of his world-class speed to fend off the highly talented but consistently overlooked Kenny Bednarek.
He beat Bednarek in a final sprint to beat him by 19.53 seconds, breaking Michael Johnson's meet record (19.66). Bednarek, a Tokyo Olympic silver medalist who finished second to Lyles in the 100 meters in the heats, beat all but nine of the fastest runners in history by half a lap. The only problem was, one of them was running in the two lanes to his left.
“I felt like I was winning,” Bednarek said. “I was too nervous at the end. That's the only reason I lost. If I don't get nervous, I can win next time. He beat me in this race. What matters is to get him to the Olympics.”
“After I made the turn, I thought to myself, 'OK, no need to worry,'” Lyles said. “'I've been here many times. He's going to fall in 80 yards, I can go faster.' And that's exactly what happened.”
Lyles, always full of energy when talking about ordering breakfast, walked slowly after crossing the finish line, stopped, raised his arms and smiled. He embraced long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall and knocked her celebratory cowboy hat off her head.
“The 200 meters is where it gets harder and harder to celebrate,” Lyles said. “It's a race I love, so I don't take it for granted, but when the times are getting faster and faster, sometimes you start to take 19.5 for granted.”
Lyles had a chance at the Paris Olympics to win a triple gold medal, and even a quadruple if she qualified for the 4×400 relay. Richardson didn't get the same chance. She finished fourth in the 200-meter final, far down lane nine, beaten by a University of Iowa athlete from Claremont, Calif., who had crashed a party.
Brittany Brown, out of sight of any other athlete for the entire race, entered her first Olympic Games and, at 29 years old, ran the race of her life to steal the spot that was widely expected to go to Richardson. She won the silver medal in a personal best time of 21.90 seconds and booked her spot in Paris. Brown won silver at the 2019 world championships and was selected to represent the United States in the 100 meters at last summer's world championships. On Saturday, she ran for an Olympic spot.
“I do a lot of visualization,” Brown says, “I kind of imagined this moment and I imagined being here.”
Despite her dominance in the 100, Richardson was far from a sure bet for the 200 going into the heats. But the first two rounds changed that perception. She finished both races with ease, in 21.92 and 21.99 seconds. After the semifinals, she danced and smiled.
Richardson again slowed near the finish line in Saturday's final, but only because she realized she wouldn't make the podium. She finished in 22.16 seconds. She patted Thomas on the arm and walked over to hug Brown. Richardson smiled and blew kisses to her family as she exited the track. She declined to speak to reporters.
After missing out on the 2021 Olympics due to a suspension for testing positive for marijuana, Richardson goes to Paris as the favorite to win the 100 meters and the favorite to win the 4×100 meters relay, but he won't have a chance to win a double in either individual event.
Lyles hasn't lost a 200m race since the Tokyo Olympic final. On Saturday, he extended that record to 25 races. Lyles hasn't forgotten his last loss. He competed in Tokyo after a tumultuous year in which he struggled with depression and then stopped taking antidepressants because he thought they were affecting his training. He broke down in tears and called his bronze medal “boring.”
Lyles overcame the turmoil and overcame the mental issues to establish himself as the best sprinter in the world, winning four world championships between 2022 and 2023. The bronze medal still hurts.
“I don't feel anything about it,” Lyles said early last week. “I don't like it. But I think it's precisely because I don't like it that it fuels me with the passion to keep going and keep trying. Every time I look back, I think, 'Oh, I guess I've done enough.' And then I look back and see my medal and I'm like, 'All right, let's get back to work.'”
At 20, Elyon Knighton made his second Olympic team, three years after becoming the youngest U.S. male track and field athlete since 1964. Knighton competed less than two weeks after an independent arbitrator ruled that he had been lifted from a provisional suspension imposed on March 26 after testing positive for the anabolic steroid trenbolone. The arbitrator agreed with Knighton's claim that he had consumed tainted meat but had not taken any performance-enhancing drugs.
“In my mind, I didn't do anything wrong,” he said. “I've always been a good, good, clean athlete. This is my first meet since coming back and I'm relieved to be able to run and to have been selected for the team.”
Knighton took third place on Saturday in 19.77 seconds, 0.12 seconds ahead of hapless Christian Coleman, who also took fourth place in the 100 meters.
Thomas won as the favorite in 21.81 seconds, a time that belied her unexpected rise to stardom three years ago. She won the 2021 Trials in 21.61 seconds, making her the second-fastest woman ever in the 200 meters at the time. The race catapulted Thomas into the top echelon of U.S. track and field and changed the way she saw herself. In Tokyo, Thomas won a bronze medal in the 200 meters and ran on the 4×100 relay team that won silver.
“It's definitely a lot different,” Thomas said. “Last time, I was excited to be here. I was nervous for sure, but it was a little bit more fun in that sense. No, it's like I have no choice but to move on to the next round. There's definitely more pressure.”
Thomas has become a bona fide star. She will have a rising star with her. Mackenzie Long, the Mississippi native who won three NCAA championships a month ago — the 100, 200 and 4×100 relay — has emerged as a future star and a dark horse Olympic medal contender, winning the 200 in 21.83 seconds. She missed the 100-meter final in the preliminaries but sprinted her way to Paris in 21.91 seconds on Saturday.
Long's arrival comes after a personal tragedy. Long's mother, Tara Jones, died in February of a heart attack at age 45. Jones was heavily involved in Long's athletics career. During the NCAA Championships, Long wished she could call her mother. When she signed with Adidas, she wanted Jones to see her in a professional uniform. Long listens to her mother's playlist “DON'T BE A LAZY B.” during training.
Before the race, Richardson, who lost her mother before the 2021 Trials, hugged Long and told her, “I know how you feel.” Long spoke out loud to her mother. During the warm-up, Long said out loud, “Let's do it, Mom.” In her mind, she heard her mother reply, “You can do it, baby girl.”
“I know my mom is blushing and smiling,” Long said afterward. “I know she's incredibly proud of me, and that's all I want.”
