TOKYO: Noah Lyles said he had to overcome huge mental pressure to compete at the world championships in Tokyo, where he scorched to a history-equalling fourth 200m title on Friday.
Lyles, speaking after matching Jamaican legend Usain Bolt’s record, admitted he had found it challenging to return to the venue of Covid-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The American was a massive favourite for the 200m there, but only came away with a bronze medal, later revealing his long experience of anxiety and depression and how the year leading into those Olympics had taken it out of him both physically and mentally.
“I remember the last time I came to Tokyo, and, gosh, the stands were empty,” Lyles said of his experience in 2021.
“I was depressed at the time and I wasn’t putting together the performances that I wanted to.”
He won the Olympic 100m last year in Paris but again only finished third in the 200m, after developing Covid.
The 28-year-old said he had even been “getting a little bit of PTSD” as he had come into the Tokyo world championships “with the strategy of -‘I’ve been to two Olympics and I’ve had two things not go as to plan as I wanted’, and using the strategy of going all out.
“Me and my therapist (are) having to have a lot of talks about ‘you’ve got to wipe that from your mind’.
“The references we were using are, ‘Jump out of a plane!’. You either do or you don’t, so if you don’t jump out the plane, you’re not winning the race.
The “amazing crowd” had helped him this time, he said.
Lyles insisted however that his victory on Friday did “not feel like redemption” after his 2021 performance on the same track.
“It’s a very different feeling, especially when you only get a few chances at the Olympics. The world championships we have every two years, so there’s a lot more opportunity for it.
“I don’t think any amount of world championship wins in the 200m will ever give me the empty feeling that I have for that 200m Olympic gold.”
Lyles, who won bronze in the 100m in the Japanese capital on Sunday, clocked 19.52sec for the 200m win on Friday, with teammate Kenny Bednarek taking silver in 19.58sec.
Jamaican Bryan Levell claimed a first senior medal with bronze in 19.64sec.
Lyles, who only did four 200m races all season before these worlds, relied on his top-end speed in the last third, having come into the homse straight in fourth place.
“If I’m anywhere near the start or the front of the pack coming off of the turn, in my head, I’m like, ‘This is easier than what I used to have to do!’.”
Looking ahead to the 2027 world championships in Beijing and the Los Angeles Olympics a year later, Lyles said: “Each world championships is a blueprint to how I want to handle the Olympics.
“So any challenge that I want to take on at the Olympics, I’m going to use the world championships as a springboard to do that.
“I’m now considered a ‘doubler’, having multiple medals in both the 100 and 200m, and I feel I’ve done a pretty good job of that. I would like to continue that.”
He concluded with a final jab at “the amateurism that we are already dealing with” in his sport, but declined to go into details.–AFP
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
