It is the Olympic season and every performance of an athlete comes under the scanner. And if that athlete is a potential contender on the Olympic podium, that scan reaches another level. So has happened with Noah Lyles. Before the 2024 Tom Jones Memorial Classic, Noah Lyles faced scrutiny following a disappointing performance at the Pepsi Florida Relays on March 3rd. Lyles, a 6X world champion, failed to complete his leg in the 4x100m relay at Percy Beard Track, leaving questions about the reasons behind his unexpected setback. Naturally, all the eyes were on his outdoor season opener at the Tom Jones.

Noah put up a decent time of 10.01 in the 100m, tying with Kenny Bednarek. One can not say, though, that he has been completely successful in making his fans content with this effort. Rather, Noah Lyles’ historic problem with his starts came to the fore once again.

Recently r/trackandfield had posted a winners list of Tom Jones Memorial on Reddit captioning, “ Noah Lyles Won Tom Jones Memorial, but at what cost?” While it was immediately not clear what the cost is, apparently it seems that the user referred to putting a huge effort on a relatively less important race ahead of the Olympics. Any injury at this stage might jeopardize the hopes for the big games. But there are other reasons to be disappointed. 

Noah Lyles Won Tom Jones Memorial, but at what cost?
byu/AesirFaith4 intrackandfield

After Noah Lyles’ wins in the 60m dash at USATF indoors and World Indoors, his coach Lance Brauman made an ambitious claim. He had said, that in the outdoors their aim is to hit 9.70s or even faster. Understandably, in the season opener, Noah’s performance did not come anywhere close to that. Therefore the fans did not make any bones about it. However, the reactions were mixed as he also received some support amid that.

Fans are critical but with a dash of support

Noah Lyles’ problem with his starts is not unknown. He himself has pointed out that his strength in a 100m dash is the last 40m. Understandably, if a strong start is added to that, it might bring him closer to breaking Usain Bolt’s records, as claimed by him. Keeping that in mind, Noah has left no stone unturned to work on his starts. He has biochemist Ralph Mann, who exclusively works to improve his starts by applying scientific methods. Despite that one fan could not stop recalling that after seeing Noah’s less-than-impressive performance. “He got a terrible start so for him to pull out the dub was impressive”, the fan wrote.

One fan however is interested in waiting more to get the best from Lyles. “Sandbags don’t come off till May, Stay tuned,” they said. Some also speculated that Noah might be saving his best performance to be unfolded gradually.

“It’s his outdoor season opener. Considering he ran indoors this year, there is no reason for Noah to come out guns blazing this early,” Commented a fan in this regard. Some sounded even more positive.

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Comparing his performance with Kenny Bednarek and with some positivity one fan said, “he got out faster than kenny tho”. 

It seems that fans, despite being unhappy and pointing out faults, have not completely lost hope in Noah Lyles.It remains to be seen if Lyles lives up to it as the season unfolds leading to the Olympics.