Paris (AFP) – World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe said Monday newly crowned Olympic sprint king Noah Lyles has given a boost to the sport not seen since the glory years of Usain Bolt. Speaking to reporters after Lyles won an epic men’s 100m final at the Stade de France on Sunday, Coe said the charismatic American was now “hugely important” for athletics.
Lyles, 27, revels in his role as one of the great showmen of track and field, and was a central character in the recent Netflix docu-series “Sprint.” Coe said reigning 100m and 200m world champion Lyles was on course to fill the void created by the departure of Jamaican icon Bolt, the eight-time Olympic gold medallist who retired in 2017. “I have to be relatively agnostic, but if I’m wearing a promoter’s hat, then him winning last night was important because he’s now creating a narrative that is heading us back into the Usain Bolt territory,” Coe said. “That is hugely important. Because he’s a recognizable face. It’s a face that I’ve now got young people talking about. And I know that not just from being in the stadium here or being in the athletics world.”
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“I know what they’re talking about. I know friends of mine who’ve got young kids, they’re now talking about Noah Lyles in the same breath as some of the highest-profile sports men and women in the world.”
– Transcending athletics –
Lyles himself greeted his victory on Sunday with a call for athletics to do a better job of promoting itself. The Florida-based sprinter also hopes to leverage his Olympic success by securing a Michael Jordan-style sports shoe deal. “I can understand that,” Coe said. “That’s between him and his shoe company. But look, what he is recognizing and reflecting on is that he is beginning to transcend his sport, which is really what we want them all to do.”
Coe meanwhile said Lyles’ win by just 0.005sec on Sunday — the narrowest margin of victory in a 100m final in modern Olympic history — had demonstrated his greatness. “What he has is what all great individuals and great teams in sport have — when it really matters, they find a way to win, and that’s what he did last night,” Coe said. “He was never ahead in that race until the last frame of that photo finish, but he found a way. He didn’t look outstanding in the first round, and his semi-final was okay, but last night was his kingdom.”
Coe added that Lyles’ enthusiastic embrace of his role as an entertainer was an example to other stars of the sport. “I’ve always said, performance is your passport, but promotion is everything,” Coe said. “It’s not enough to be just another Olympic champion or another world champion. He wants to fill a stadium and he also wants to fill a press conference. And actually, what he has to say is profoundly important for the sport. And there are things he has said that have got us all thinking slightly differently on occasions.”
© 2024 AFP
