Joe McConnell
VscekSports.com
Justin Gatlin I’m not blaming Noah Lyles a bit for having run the Olympic track despite being positive for COVID… telling Vscek Sports the opportunity to win a medal far outweighed the other risks, at least in his opinion.
Of course, there were many detractors in the sports world who thought differently… as they believed the American had put his fellow competitors and others in the area in danger when… he chose to run Thursday’s 200m final in Paris, despite showing symptoms of coronavirus.
NBC’s Olympic coverage is great, but this is their Achilles. All we hear is Noah Lyles, Noah Lyles.
Then Letsile Tebogo 🇧🇼 smokes it and puts it on the field, then his story is told.
Tebogo 1st African and youngest ever🥇 in the 200 meters.
We love 🇺🇸 but we also love greatnessphoto.twitter.com/gzVCnh7HSt— Massimiliano Bretos (@MaxBretosSports) August 8, 2024
@MaxBretosSports
But Gatlin, a U.S. track legend, told us on Friday he would have done exactly the same thing … explaining, “This is an Olympic dream you have, man.”
Make no mistake: The 42-year-old didn’t downplay the severity of the disease by telling us, “I had a family member die of COVID.” He just said that he thought medical advances had mitigated many of the potential problems.
“I think with Noah,” Justin said, “nothing was going to stop him from getting to the starting line and trying to give it his all.”
Gatlin went on to say that since the Games are only held every four years, he believes Lyles didn’t have much choice in the matter.
“It’s not like the NBA Finals, where it happens every year,” he said. “Or the Super Bowl, where it happens every year. It’s never, ‘Well, next time you’re going to get them!'”
Lyles, who won bronze in the 200 meters despite his illness, ultimately opted out of Team USA’s 4×100 race on Friday to recover. The team continued to lose without him… but check out our chat with Gatlin: He believes the outcome of the race could have been different with just a few tweaks, even without Lyles in the mix.
