Noah Lyles did not win a gold medal in the 200-meter at the Olympics in Paris. His disappointing loss to Letsile Tebogo was a total fluke.
The American sprinter reclaimed his crowd with yet another dominant victory on the Diamond League circuit.
Lyles is perhaps the biggest star in track and field. The 27-year-old talks more talk than the majority of his competitors and typically backs it up. Just not in France at the end of last summer. It was a disaster.
Although Noah Lyles came out hot with an epic come-from-behind win in the 100, he was expected to complete the double with a win in the 200. He actually went so far as to publicly guarantee a second victory in his second race.
That did not happen.
Lyles came down with COVID-19 and struggled to keep pace with Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and his fellow countryman, Kenneth Bednarek. If we’re being honest, a third-place finish at the Olympics while battling a respiratory illness is even more impressive than a gold medal but nobody cares about bronze when the guarantee was gold. His haters were all over him.
That was 11 months ago. Noah Lyles has not run the 200 since.
He made his triumphant return to the event at the Diamond League meet in Monaco against the man that beat him last year. Tebogo got smoked.
😱 19.88 😱
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) July 11, 2025
200m opener from @LylesNoah to takedown 2024 Olympic Champ Letsile Tebogo 19.97 (-0.8).
With this win, it now makes 7 years since Lyles last Diamond League 200m loss.#MonacoDL and #DiamondLeague coverage presented by @FleetFeetSports & @Tracksmith pic.twitter.com/qUsQsGEBFC
Lyles ran a flawless 200 to finish nearly one full tenth of a second faster than the Olympic gold medalist at 19.88. With this win, it now makes seven years since he last lost on the Diamond League circuit in the 200.
That settles that. Noah Lyles is faster than Letsile Tebogo. The Olympics were a fluke. A respiratory illness prevented the greatest sprinter in the world from winning a race he was going to win and you cannot tell me otherwise. I am choosing to forget the bronze medal. This latest Diamond League result retroactively counts toward the American gold medal total. Make it 41!