There are some extremely insane takes being thrown around about this man, so much so that it mixes in with the rational critiques and makes the entire community seem butthurt.

Firstly, the valid critiques of Noah

  1. The “world champions” comment he made was extremely pedantic and unnecessary, clearly focused on drawing attention to himself

  2. If the Ant comments are true, the phrasing was extremely poor and the article was clearly circulated by his team again for attention, and the tweet was definitely a backpedal once he saw the backlash

  3. His legacy at the Olympics is 1 gold and 2 bronze, which absolutely pales in comparison to athletes like Simone Biles and Michael Phelps who’ve stayed away from commenting on other sports

  4. Noah Lyles will never be as popular as Ant, even post Olympic gold, because track and field is not a popular sport, and him being in denial about that is kind of embarrassing

However, these rational points have been made alongside some really dumb takes

  1. “World champion” can be argued to include the Olympics or not, but no matter how much the community whines, the Celtics cannot be called world champions after winning a domestic league. I think America has confused “world champions” with “best team” and NBA players jumping into this argument with no critical thinking skills has inflamed the situation for no reason.

  2. Yes Noah Lyles talks shit and hypes himself up a lot, having a big ego is necessary to be a top sprinter as it is to be on top in any sport, and I’m surprised that this is difficult to understand for NBA fans of all people.

  3. Noah Lyles is objectively a great sprinter and minimizing his legacy just makes you sound unintelligent, world championships may not register in the mainstream eye but for track and field fans they absolutely matter as much as the Olympics and his accomplishments there are all-time great

  4. This is a more fringe comment but since Tyreek Hill echoed it I’ll just mention it, there is not a single athlete in the NBA or NFL that Noah wouldn’t smoke in a sprint race, this is so delusional I almost didn’t even feel it was worth mentioning but since a pro athlete said it I added it anyways

Just to be clear, I think the way he’s handled himself has been very corny and lame (not to mention the sheer recklessness of competing and being around the village with Covid), but it’s really a terrible look to get so riled up by the comments that takes like those are genuinely stated and agreed with

  • DevMahasenBEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Lyles, his persona and his comments have to also been taken in context of the modern day sprinter and athletics in general: he is trying to fill the vacuum left by the retirement of Bolt by infusing his personality into narrative around him and sprinting in general. The problem is Bolt’s persona was extremely likable, even when he was being cocky. I would argue few high level athletes made cockiness as endearing as Bolt did. Bolt is also from a smaller country, and everyone wants to see smaller countries do well in Olympics. Everything Lyles does is off-putting because it seems artificial and fake, and because we subconciously and conciously are comparing him to who came before him. And who came before Lyles just happens to be the most beloved, most dominant sprinter of all time. Nothing Lyles does in his career - barring some miraculous quantum jump in performance AND persona - is going to change that from the fanbase. And I am speaking as a track fan, and as someone who agrees with Lyles’ take, even it was unnecessasry, pedantic and plain envy.