Noah Lyles dreams of lofty '9.41s and 18.6s' to break Usain Bolt's World Records

Noah Lyles

Noah Lyles dreams of lofty '9.41s and 18.6s' to break Usain Bolt's World Records

Funmilayo Fameso 20:04 - 04.06.2024

World's fastest man Noah Lyles believes breaking Usain Bolt's World Records can be done with outrageous numbers.

Six-time world champion Noah Lyles has revealed his ambitious dream of obliterating Usain Bolt's World Records so high that when anyone looks at them, they'll think it's impossible.

The American speedster who's the reigning double sprint world champion, tasted defeat in his 2024 outdoor season opener at the Racers Grand Prix, as Jamaican speed sensation Oblique Seville won in a Personal Best (PB) of 9.82s to Lyles's 9.85s.

Despite his loss, he clocked his second-fastest career time and warned his rivals that the loss had only given him more confidence.

Lyles has an ambitious goal of winning four gold medals (100m, 200m, 4x100m, and 4x400m) at the Paris Olympic Games, which if successful, will make him the first man in history to achieve such a feat.

Aside from this, a compilation of his interviews through the years has also revealed his dream of breaking Bolt's WRs of 9.58s and 19.19s with lofty numbers of 9.41s and 18.6s.

Noah Lyles is the reigning world 100m champion

"I have to run 9.41s in the 100, that's really like the dream that I've seen many times in my head and then 18.6s in the 200m," said Lyles whose PBs are 9.83s and 19.31s respectively.

In another interview, he said: "I want to leave the record so high that anytime someone looks at it, they're gonna think that's impossible...I mean 18, 18.8, 18.7, 18.6..."

While these numbers may seem almost impossible, Lyles's development and performances in the past few years have shown his dreams can be valid.

For context, he almost broke his 100m PB of 9.83s as a season opener in Jamaica, meaning he's in great shape to shatter this time and target a 9.6s when the stakes are high at the Olympics.

Also, his 200m PB of 19.31s makes him the American record holder and third-fastest man in history. An improvement in his 100m will technically equate to him smashing this record as well.

He is just 26 years old and getting to the peak of his career. With the technological and scientific advancements that are rapidly evolving in the past decade, one bound to continue, surely there can't be a limit to how fast sprinters will run, and Lyles will firmly be in this conversation to make that happen.

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