After Noah Lyles edged Kishane Thompson by just 0.005 seconds to win the Paris 2024 Olympic 100m final in 9.784, he called it “the hard battle” after all eight men in the race went under 10 seconds. But the rivalry flipped in 2025 when Thompson hit back at the Diamond League Silesia, beating Lyles 9.87 to 9.90. Soon after, Lyles said, “My pocket’s going to be so far ahead (next time).” Everyone was waiting for the next clash, but before it could happen, Lyles stepped out of that immediate showdown.

On April 23, Travis Miller shared a post on X that showed the entry list for the Shanghai 2026 Wanda Diamond League 100m, and it felt like deja vu. Kishane Thompson, Letsile Tebogo, Kenny Bednarek, and Akani Simbine are all back in the mix. Well, it’s almost the same group that lit up the Paris Olympic final, where Thompson took silver in 9.789, Tebogo finished sixth, Bednarek seventh, and Simbine fourth.

But the difference this time is simple: Noah Lyles is not there, and neither is Olympic bronze medalist Fred Kerley.

Even so, the race still carries a lot of weight. Christian Coleman comes in as a current Diamond League champion in the 100m race, having won his third series in Zurich in September last year. Trayvon Bromell, too, is no slouch with a gun, a former 100m Diamond League champion in 2022 and recent indoor bronze medalist at 60m in the World Championships in Poland. And there are the wild cards.

Gift Leotlela, Lachlan Kennedy, and Xie Zhenye can absolutely change a race if the start is clean and the rhythm clicks.

Still, the focus keeps circling back to Thompson and Tebogo! Both are chasing their first Diamond League 100m title, even though they have already stacked up 11 wins between them over the last two seasons. Kenny Bednarek is right there in the mix too, currently ranked world number three behind Thompson and world champion Oblique Seville. He is also a two-time Diamond League 200m champion.

With Lyles missing, the story shifts slightly. It is still tied to that Olympic rivalry, but now the race feels more open, like a chance for someone else to take control of the night in Shanghai on May 16. But that brings up the bigger question: Why did Noah Lyles skip Shanghai in the first place?

Noah Lyles’ likely reason to skip the Shanghai Diamond League

Well, Noah Lyles’ form is not the reason for missing the Shanghai DL. In fact, he has been quite active this season. He opened his indoor year with multiple 60m races and a 300m, even taking a close loss in Boston, where Jereem Richards got the better of him. But then he moved outdoors.

Even on April 17, Lyles ran the 200m in 19.91 seconds, with Max Thomas close behind in 19.98 and Tate Taylor finishing in 20.05. Just a day later, on April 18, he was back on the track again at the Tom Jones Invitational in Gainesville, running in a 4x100m setup with a strong group that included Jordan Anthony, Trayvon Bromell, and Jake Odey-Jordan.

That same team finished the race in 37.78 seconds. So he has clearly been racing back-to-back. And that is where the Shanghai decision makes more sense!

Noah Lyles is scheduled to race in the Tokyo Golden Grand Prix on May 17, a date very close to the Shanghai/Keqiao meet. So, running both would leave almost no recovery time between high-intensity 100m races, and sprint seasons are usually planned with careful gaps to avoid fatigue and injury risk.

This type of strategic scheduling is not uncommon at the elite level; in 2023, Fred Kerley made a similar choice to bypass the Monaco meet to focus his preparation for the World Championship. So for Lyles, the most likely reason is simple: scheduling and recovery.

Even then, his calendar is still packed, with big races ahead like the Rome Diamond League and Paris Diamond League in June 2026, where the real sprint battles are expected to continue.