The 2024 Paris Games were touted to be the first “normal” Olympics since the COVID-19-delayed Tokyo Games, but the past two weeks have shown that this is not the case. The virus is still around, and never was that more visibly evident than in the men’s 200-meter final on August 8, when star sprinter Noah Lyles was examined by the medical team and removed from the track in a wheelchair just minutes after winning the bronze medal.
About 15 minutes later, Lyles, who won the 100-meter dash on Aug. 4, re-emerged wearing a black KN95 mask and confirmed on the NBC broadcast that he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 at 5 a.m. Tuesday before Thursday’s final.
“I felt absolutely awful and I knew it wasn’t just soreness from running 100 miles. I woke the doctor up and he tested me and unfortunately it was positive,” he said. NBC.
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“My first thought was, don’t panic. I’ve been in much worse situations,” he told NBC, adding that panicking didn’t occur to him. do not have “Obviously I was pretty tired, but I’ve never been more proud to come this far and win a bronze medal,” she said of running in the 200m final.
“We just took it one day at a time, tried to stay as hydrated as possible and stayed in isolation,” he said.
Lyles wore a surgical mask in the pre-race area, and after the race, Lyles, who finished third despite being the favorite to win, remained sitting or kneeling on the track. Saw He was having trouble breathing and was later carried out of the truck in a wheelchair, while his mother was looking for him, according to an NBC reporter at the scene.
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