Noah Lyles smiled when he realized what had happened, unfazed and maybe a little proud of what he had lost. He glanced to his right at Erriyon Knighton, the 17-year-old who occupies the place in track and field he once did.
“Hey, Erriyon!” Lyles shouted. “You broke my record, bro!”
“I did?” Knighton asked him.
“Yeah!”
“What was it?”
“Mine was .09, and yours was .04. Congratulations!”
On Friday in Eugene, Ore., Lyles returned to the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and found a warm embrace. He competed in a qualifying heat of the 200 meters, the event he has dominated for three years, and eased into the semifinals. He glided home for the final 50 meters and lost only to Knighton, a phenom from Tampa who crossed in 20.04 seconds and broke the high school record Lyles had set at the 2016 trials when he ran for T.C. Williams.
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“You know, there was once a point that I cared, and I’d say that was a few months ago,” Lyles said. “Now I don’t really care. It’s exciting to see.”
On a bustling day at Hayward Field, many stars asserted themselves. Grant Holloway melted the track in the first round of the 110-meter hurdles. Gabby Thomas became the 10th-fastest American woman ever in the 200 meters (21.94 seconds), advancing to a final where she will run against Allyson Felix. Rai Benjamin won his 400-meter hurdles semifinal so easily that he peered into the stands to find his mother as he trotted home. Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad played with their food in the first round of the women’s 400-meter hurdles. Matthew Centrowitz ran a blistering final lap to win his 1,500-meter semifinal. Hillary Bor won the 3,000-meter steeplechase, sending him to his second Olympics alongside Bernard Keter and Mason Ferlic.
And then there was Lyles, a star who reasserted himself. Lyles’s steady ascent from the moment he turned professional had shielded from him the challenge he faced Friday: responding to competitive disappointment. The first weekend of the trials dealt him a seventh-place finish in the 100 meters and dashed his goal of winning three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
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If Lyles felt frustrated, he hid it well. If anything, after a season spent mostly focused on improving his 100, Lyles appeared relieved that he could shift his full attention to the event that made him a world champion, the race he loves most.
“It always feels natural when I come back to it,” Lyles said. “I don’t have to stress too hard. I don’t have to think about too much. I don’t even have to worry about if I get a good start or not, because I know, whatever the situation is, I can always come back in my turn and then slingshot off, be strong in my finish. It’s really just a comfortable feeling.”
Lyles turns 24 next month, and if further proof is required that he has graduated from phenom status, it is the existence of a sprinter who could be called the next Noah Lyles. Knighton, who turned professional in January, was asked which sprinters he looked up to. “Noah,” he replied. And then: “Bolt.”
Knighton won the heat primarily because Lyles backed off, content to move on and provide his legs rest for the next round. Knighton throttled down at the end but only after he looked over his shoulder.
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“I had the world champ behind me,” Knighton said. “I can’t let off the gas too much.”
Lyles is still seeking his first Olympic bid, but he relished a chance to play the role of sage. After the race, Lyles stopped for an on-track television interview. Walking into the tunnel, he sidled up to Knighton.
“Yo, man, you got to stay around for that stuff,” Lyles said. “They were going to grab you and put you on TV.”
“Nah, I don’t think wanted they me,” Knighton replied.
“Trust me,” Lyles told him. “You won the heat. You beat me. They’re going to want to talk to you.”
Lyles made a rare leap when he and his brother, Josephus, skipped college to turn pro. He wanted to show others it could be done. In Knighton, he sees a potential torchbearer.
“It reminds me of when I was coming out here in 2016, and now seeing another group of people doing it again,” Lyles said. “That’s what I wished for. That’s what I hoped for when I came out pro. I want to start a legacy where people can say, ‘You don’t have to go just one path.’ He’s taking that path me and my brother took, so it’s really exciting. It warms my heart to see we’re continuing this trend.”
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Another performance delighted Lyles even more. Josephus qualified for the 200 semifinals, too, running the fifth-fastest time of the heats at 20.39 seconds. As Noah’s star rose, Josephus dealt with nagging injuries — when Noah won his first national title in 2019, Josephus watched from the bleachers. But Josephus remained upbeat, and now he’s finally healthy.
“We’ve been waiting four years for this,” Noah Lyles said.
Friday lifted the curtain on the women’s 400 hurdles, one of the most compelling showdowns of the trials. McLaughlin’s heat was marred by three restarts, a scourge all day; the final heat in the men’s 110 hurdles included six restarts. McLaughlin’s knee started bleeding from lowering it to the hot track so many times.
“I’ve never had that many restarts in my life — ever,” she said. “It was definitely a little bit of a mind game, having to refocus that many times. But it was a good test to show that anything can happen.”
McLaughlin dominated anyway, easing at the end and still running 54.07, a time bettered by only two women in the world this year. Muhammad, the world record holder, countered with 55.51 in her heat.
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In men’s long jump qualifying, Jarrion Lawson took the lead with a leap of 26 feet 7¾ inches. A silver medalist at the 2017 world championships, Lawson tested positive for the anabolic steroid trenbolone in 2018. He served 19 months of a four-year ban before March 2020, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport granted his appeal, ruling the steroid had come from tainted beef.
Resolution aside, Lawson’s case may be the closest parallel to Shelby Houlihan’s four-year ban. Houlihan, the American record holder in the 1,500 and 5,000, revealed before the trials she had tested positive for the steroid nandrolone and faulted tainted pork from a food truck burrito.
“Going through what I went through, every time I see a case like Shelby’s, I automatically take the athlete’s side now,” Lawson said. “Just seeing the ins and outs and the Athletics Integrity Unit, WADA, USADA. I listened to one of her interviews, and she kind of reminded me of myself. Being a clean athlete, you get confused why you’re going through this.”
The timing for Houlihan, 28, means she will miss an Olympics — and possibly two — in her prime. If Houlihan is found to be innocent, Lawson provides the best example of how to rebound from the injustice.
“Don’t let them take your soul,” he said. “Don’t let them take your hope. Continue to believe in yourself and continue to do things right. Just be patient and let the people around you really huddle around you and do what they need to do it. If it doesn’t go your way, don’t let it crush you. Don’t let it break you. Let it build you.”
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