'Tebogo had 30,000 but I had no bus waiting'– American sprint king slams USA for not celebrating its Olympians

'Tebogo had 30,000 but I had no bus waiting'– American sprint king slams USA for not celebrating its Olympians

Joel Omotto 09:12 - 19.08.2024

The Olympic champion has expressed his disappointment at the lukewarm reception Team USA athletes received back home despite their successful outing in Paris.

Olympics 100m champion Noah Lyles had hit out at the US for their lukewarm reception when its Olympians returned home unlike other countries that have been celebrating their champions.

Lyles was among American athletes who won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics and was disappointed to see the mammoth crowds that welcomed some of his rivals when they returned home, such as 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, who arrived home to a stadium filled with 30,000 people, to celebrate him.

There were also similar scenes in Kenya last week when the country’s champions were welcomed to Eldoret, same as in Pakistan where their lone gold medallist Arshad Nadeem received a hero’s welcome before several cash rewards went his way.

“Unlike these other countries that celebrate their athletes on such a humongous stage. When Tebogo won his gold medal, he went back to a stadium filled with 30,000 people celebrating,” Lyles told Shannon Sharpe.

“When I showed back home on my flight, of course some people recognized me and I’m very thankful for that, but there was no 30,000 people, there was no Melo driver ready to take me home, there was no bus waiting.

“I had my mum, paps (dad) and they were ready to take me home and I was ready to go to bed. We have a different way in America of seeing our sports, the problem that I had was you are giving the title of world champions to people who were not facing the world.”

It is not the first time Lyles has slammed the US for not celebrating its champions enough.

He also had a go at his country for calling NBA players “world champions” when athletes who won gold medals in global events should have been given the title and also claimed the US is not ‘crazy’ about track and field compared to Europe and other continents.