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.

It’s weird how this man has been in the public eye for 23 odd years, in the era of social media and obiquitous cameras, and somehow didn’t have any great scandals, and in lieu of no scandals, all these people can do is post shit like this. Idiots.

This is why I am on this subreddit. Thanks to everyone posting full games. I am going to spend the next weekend watching some of these. Thanks, fellas.