LYLES Noah

General
MENTAL HEALTH
In August 2020 he revealed that he had been struggling with his mental health since he spent two months living, training and competing in Europe before the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar. "I was just in Europe for so long, and I was getting really homesick. I thought about going home so many times because I was getting really depressed and getting into the mindset that I don't want to even train any more. It got to the point where I was just so deep, deep inside of myself, that I was just putting on a face and doing what I needed to do. My family came down for Christmas and my mum was really starting to worry about me. So that's when I started ringing my personal therapist on a regular basis, and it was going well for a time, but once coronavirus hit and the Black Lives Matter movement started happening, it created the perfect storm. I didn't feel like it was very hard to share, as I'm constantly talking about mental health." (olympicchannel.com, 12 Aug 2020; insidethegames.biz, 03 Aug 2020; Twitter profile, 02 Aug 2020; eurosport.com, 27 Sep 2019)

COVID-19 IMPACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 he said he was concerned about being personally at risk of the virus due to factors relating to his health. He contracted swine flu during the 2009 pandemic. "I have risk factors with allergies and asthma that make my immune system weaker. It's a bit scary because I had swine flu back in the day so I know my body is more susceptible to catching things. I've been watching the news closely because we're all anxious and I was relieved to see the [2020] Olympics were postponed." (thetimes.co.uk, 28 Mar 2020)

WORLD RECORD ERROR
In July 2020 he appeared to have set a 200m world record of 18.90s at the Inspiration Games, where athletes competed simultaneously at different venues around the world. However, at his solo race in Bradenton, FL, United States of America, he realised afterwards that he started in the wrong place on the track, meaning he only ran 185 metres. (bbc.co.uk, 09 Jul 2020)

MUSICIAN
In 2019 he released a song in a collaboration with US pole vaulter Sandi Morris and Swiss band Baba Shrimps. The song is called 'Souvenir'. (olympics.nbcsports.com, 22 Apr 2020)