American track icon Noah Lyles has made big claims ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Lyles won the 200m bronze during the Tokyo Olympics, but this time aims to win not one, not two but four gold medals for Team USA. Lyles wants to repeat his 2023 World Championships feat of winning the sprint double at the Olympics. He also dreams of winning the 4x00m and 4×400 relay.

However, the 26-year-old won’t find out if he’s eligible for the latter event a day before the finals. Yet, Noah Lyles wasn’t always so keen on bringing home Olympic gold. The 7x world championships medalist recounted a childhood memory of watching the 2004 Athens games with his Uncle. “All these countries decide to go to this one event, and if you win then you are basically the champion of the world,” Lyles’s Uncle told him.

However, he didn’t understand why that was the case. “And I’m like, ‘Ok, and they just all agree to this? What’s so special about it?'” Lyles recalled asking his uncle during a CBS Sports interview. Young Noah Lyles would find out exactly what made the Olympics the grandest stage of them all as he grew to fall in love with sprinting.

His perception had already changed by the time the 2012 London Olympics rolled around. The 6x world championships gold medalist and his brother had already begun harboring lofty Olympic dreams. Noah Lyles and his brother decided that would give it their best to make the 2016 Rio Olympics team. The 200m American record holder’s Olympic dream has become even loftier.

Noah Lyes not only hopes to beat Usain Bolt’s records this year but also win Olympic gold in the process. However, his contemporary Jamaican rivals won’t make things easy for the 5x Diamond League champion.

The Jamaicans who may rain on Noah Lyles’ parade

Noah Lyles is confident that he will set new world records in Paris and will gold medals in the process. However, the third-fastest 200m sprinter won’t go into the Olympics with the best 100m time of the year. That title belongs to Jamaican track star Kishane Thompson. The 22-year-old became the fastest 100m sprinter of 2024 with a blistering 9.77s run during the Jamaican Olympic Trails.

Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala made a surprise entry into the second spot. Although Omanyala managed to finish in 7th place in the 2023 World Championships, he has left Noah Lyles behind on this year’s fastest 100m sprinters list. Finally, Lyles has to beat another Jamaican track icon, Oblique Seville. The 23-year-old holds this year’s third fastest 100m time with 9.82s on the clock.

Noah Lyles didn’t know what made the Olympics so special in 2004, but now it’s all he can think about. Excelling at the 2024 Paris Olympics is all he can think about right now.