Noah Lyles finished the 2025 season in style. He became the 200m world champion for the fourth consecutive time, matching the legendary Usain Bolt. Junelle Bormfield had to assure him that he would win the 2025 World Athlete of the Year. After becoming a finalist alongside Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Lyles claimed, “I was just so focused on trying to be in the best shape of my career for Worlds that I didn’t get to look at the season as a whole. Now that I’m looking back, I actually got a pretty good chance of winning this thing.” However, reality told a different story.

Lyles stormed to 100m gold in Paris, clocking a blistering 9.79s, the fastest time of his life and a new personal best on the sport’s biggest stage. But the 2025 season began with a tendon injury, which sidelined him until July to compete. At the pre-meet presser for the Lausanne Diamond League, Lyles admitted, “Yeah, I’d say that this is probably my most wild and unexpected year with having an injury, kind of having it in the middle of the season, kind of setting back when I was able to start it.”

Noah Lyles won a gold at the Monaco Diamond League, besting Letsile Tebogo, and clocking a time of 19.88s. At the Tokyo World Championships, he didn’t just become the 200m world champion, but also claimed a bronze in the 100m dash, and anchored Team USA to victory in the 4x100m relay. 

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Wanyonyi made the most out of this season. The Kenyan phenom ran his personal best of 1:41:11, a joint second-fastest time in 800m history. And that’s only 0.2s slower than David Rudisha’s world record. Wanyonyi dominated the Diamond League circuit, controlled every major showdown, and established himself as the year’s most commanding force over the two-lap distance as the champion.

In the end, Wanyonyi dashed past Lyles to become the 2025 World Athlete of the Year. This is the second consecutive time that Lyles is missing out on the accolade. In 2024, his performance at the Paris Olympics was impacted by COVID-19. Even though he won the 100m dash, he got the bronze in the 200m race. By the end of the 2024 season, the finalists for the Athlete of the Year were Letsile Tebogo and Jakob Ingebrigtsen. 

It’s not just Noah Lyles who missed out on becoming the 2025 World Athlete of the Year. Many anticipated that Tara Davis-Woodhall would snag the ‘2025 Field Athlete of the Year.’ But instead, the Aussie Nicola Olyslagers bagged that recognition. Tara Davis-Woodhall remained undefeated this season, leaping to her maiden global gold at the Worlds in 7.13m. Yet, she was overlooked for the award.

Even when it comes to the top spot in America, Lyles is not the one under consideration.  

Noah Lyles missed out on claiming the American top spot, too

Taking to his YouTube channel, David Robinson claimed that Lyles is yet to reach Hall of Fame status. And to compare him, Coach Rob referenced Carl Lewis.

“Carl Lewis probably does have the number one spot, but I’m saying he feels like that. Because if we’re just going off the sprint goals at the Olympics, you’ve got the 100 and 200, let’s just put them on the same level for argument’s sake. You got one, two, three, three golds in the 100 and 200 at the Games that are on the books, right?”

Lewis has two golds from the 1984 Olympics and another from the 1988 Olympics. But if we consider his long jump wins and the 4x100m relays too, he has won nine gold medals in the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, Noah Lyles has only one Olympic gold (100m dash at Paris). However, he surpassed Lewis at the World Championships. Lewis won three gold medals in the 100m race (1983, 1987, and 1991). But Lyles has four golds in the 200m races, and one in the 100m.

Coach Rob continued, “So Noah has passed him on that piece, on the Worlds, but he’s still too behind on the Olympics. And the only time I care about the clock is when you are the active world record holder when you did it, and he was.” The gap between them is pretty significant. 

In the end, falling short of both the global honour and America’s top spot only deepened the sting. Missing the World Athletics Award for the second year in a row highlights just how unforgiving the battle for greatness remains for Noah Lyles.