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Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles battled mental depression at the Tokyo Games prompting him to deploy a different approach in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics
Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles has admitted to poor psychological preparation in Tokyo Olympics but he opted to enjoy the moment by adopting a different approach at the Paris Olympic Games.
Lyles came third in the Covid-affected Tokyo Games which took place without spectators and having battled with depression at the time, he hoped to treat the Olympics as he would any other race. Lyles admits to an increased focus on his mental state ahead of the track events in Paris where he had to work with his therapists.
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"That mindset of 'it's just another competition' was definitely ringing in my mind, trying to get through this depression. I was just like, you do this every day, you got this," Lyles, the Paris Olympic 200m bronze medalist told TalkSport.
At the same time, the six-time world champion revealed the thoughts doing rounds in his mind when he was standing behind the blocks just before the finals in Tokyo.
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"When I got to the finals and we walked into that empty stadium, I remember we're all standing behind our blocks, that's usually the moment when in my head I'm like, 'it's showtime!' and I just remember thinking 'This is not it. This is not fun. This is not cool. This is not what I wanted. That was literally the last few thoughts I had as I got into the blocks, and it sucked."
Adopting a bulletproof mentality for Paris allowed Lyles to realise his dream of being an Olympic champion. Lyles ran it in 9.784 seconds, beating Jamaica's Kishane Thompson by five-thousandths of a second as Lyles exploded into a packed scene in Paris' Stade de France.
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