The American athlete, who won gold in the 100m, was taken away in a wheelchair and could now be punished, even though he tried to keep it a secret.
Noah Lyles is assisted by medical personnel after competing in the men’s 200-meter final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
The cases of Covid-19 They keep appearing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This time, the United States Track and Field Federation confirmed that Noah Lyles won the bronze medal in the 200-meter final, with a positive diagnosis, and a real scandal broke out.
Lyles finished third at the Stade de France with a time of 19.70 seconds, behind Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo (19.46), the first African champion in this event, and his compatriot Kenneth Bednarek (19.62). Once the race was over, the winner of the gold medal in the 100 metres should have been Retired in a wheelchair after receiving medical assistance for respiratory problems.
“I have Covid. I tested positive on Tuesday morning at around 5amI woke up in the middle of the night with chills and a sore throat, which were many of the symptoms I had had just before.“, he explained.
The Gainesville, Florida native, who was aiming for a podium finish and took to the track in a frenzy, jumping up and down when his name was heard over the loudspeaker, will therefore not be able to emulate Usain Bolt’s triple win in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016, with the 4x100m relay on the horizon.
“We got tested, the result was positive, and we quickly quarantined ourselves in a hotel near the (Olympic) Village. They tried to get me on all the medication we legally could to make sure my body could keep up the momentum.“, he added.
Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has not yet commented on the matter, Lyles could receive a harsh penalty taking into account the rigorous protocols of the competition.
“We were trying to keep it a secretThe people who knew were the medical staff, the coach and my mother. We didn’t want everyone to panic, we wanted them to be able to compete. We wanted this to be as free as possible. I’m competitive. Why would you give them an advantage over you?“he concluded.
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